WWiKWW,  wraw- 


MY  FOUR 

religious  lliiilii' 


TRUMBULL 


i  BKHWOWWHflWttWttffif 


ms* 


tibraxy  of  t:he  <theolo0icd  gminaty 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


BX  7259  .T78  1903 
Trumbull,  H.  Clay  1830-1903 
My  four  religious  teachers 


MY  FOUR   RELIGIOUS 
TEACHERS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/myfourreligioustOOtrum 


From  a  daguerreotype  of  the  author,  taken  in  1855,  when  he  first  came  under  the 
influence  of  these  teachers 


MY  FOUR  RELIGIOUS 
TEACHERS 

CHARLES   G.   FINNEY 

DAVID  HAWLEY 

ELIAS  R.  BEADLE 

HORACE  BUSHNELL 


BY   H.    CLAY   TRUMBULL 

Author  of  "Kadesh-barnea;"  "Oriental  Social  Life; 
"  Friendship  the  Master-Passion  ;"  "The  Knightly 
Soldier;"  "War  Memories  of  an  Army  Chap- 
lain ;  "    "  The    Blood    Covenant  ;  "    "  The 
Threshold  Covenant;"  "Yale  Lectures 
on  the  Sunday-School ; "  "  Old-Time 
Student  Volunteers,"  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  TIMES  CO. 

1903 


Copyright,  1903, 
By  H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL. 


PREFACE 

In  speaking  of  "  my  four  religious  teach- 
ers," I  have  not  here  included  my  mother 
nor  my  Sunday-school  teachers.  Yet  my 
earliest  religious  instruction  and  impres- 
sions were  given  by  them,  and  to  this 
day  I  am  grateful  for  the  permanent  in- 
fluence of  their  words  and  spirit.  Neither 
have  I  included  my  earlier  pastors,  to  whom 
I  am  permanently  indebted. 

The  four  religious  teachers  of  whom  I 
write  in  this  book  were  men  of  God  un- 
der whose  instruction  and  influence  I  was 
providentially  brought  at  the  time  when 
I  was  entering  on  the  Christian  life,  and 
whose  teachings  have  largely  shaped  my 
religious  course  and  modes  of  thought. 
Because  they  were  exceptionally  strong 
and  excellent  men,  their  power  over  me 
has  been  felt  in  a  more  than  ordinary  de- 
gree. And  for  this  leading  of  God  I  am 
profoundly  grateful,  and  am   desirous   of 


vi  Preface 

bearing   testimony   to   their   shaping    and 
influence  on  my  life  in  God's  service. 

My  mother  and  grandmother,  my  Sun- 
day-school teachers,  and  my  early  pastors, 
gave  me  my  primary  school  teaching  and 
my  training  in  the  preparatory  school  of 
life.  Without  this  teaching  and  training 
I  could  have  profited  little  from  subsequent 
teachers.  The  four  religious  teachers  of 
whom  I  now  tell  took  me,  by  God's  order- 
ing, under  their  instruction  and  influence 
when  I  was  entering  on  my  active  religious 
life.  My  course  with  them  served  for  a 
university  course,  and  also  for  a  course 
in  the  theological  seminary. 

H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL. 


Philadelphia,  June  8,  igoj. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 


WHO  THESE  FOUR  TEACHERS  WERE 

Page 

I.  Charles  G.  Finney i 

II.  David  Hawley 4 

III.  Elias  R.  Beadle 6 

IV.  Horace  Bushnell 8 

God's  Chosen  Way  for  Me       .        .        .        .     1 1 


PART  II 

REVIVALIST,  REFORMER,  AND   EDU- 
CATOR :  CHARLES  G.  FINNEY 

His  Early  Life 16 

His    Beginnings    as    a    Lawyer    and    as    a 

Preacher 
His  First  Revival  Work 
He  Stirs  New  York  City 
His  Work  at  Oberlin 
His  Work  in  Hartford     . 
His  Vigor  in  Age    . 


A  CITY  MISSIONARY'S  CHRISTLIKE  LIFE 

AMONG  THE  POOR  :    DAVID  HAWLEY 
His  Early  Work  and  Influence  in  Hartford     .     30 
His  Power  in  Public  Address         .        .         .33 

vii 


viii  Contents 


His  Tact  in  Dealing  with  All 

His  Brightness  of  Mind 

Cost  and  Worth  of  Love  and  Loyalty 

Longing  for  the  Great  Day 

His  Kind  Interest  in  Me 


Page 
36 
41 

43 
48 
50 


ONE  WHO   SPOKE   TIMELY  AND   POTENT 
WORDS  :    ELIAS  R.  BEADLE 

A  Memorable  Public  Funeral           .  .  .55 

Getting  Hold  of  Mission-School  Boys  .  .     60 

Tender  Words  of  Parting         .         .  .  .63 

A  College  Commencement  Dinner  .  .     66 

GOODNESS  AND  GREATNESS  AMONG 
ALL:    HORACE  BUSHNELL 

Perceiving  the  Best  in  Others  .         .  .70 

His  Way  of  Viewing  and  Using  Bible  Words  .     73 

His  Part  in  our  Civil  War         .         .         .  .79 

Generous  Regard  for  Views  of  Others     .  .85 

His  Way  of  Seeing  and  Saying  Things  .  .  103 

A  World-Wide  Sower  of  Seed-Thoughts  .  112 

Winning  His  Child  Hearers     .        .        .  .122 

Why    God    Gave    Me  These  Four  Re- 
ligious Teachers       .        .        .        .126 


PART  I 

WHO  THESE  FOUR  TEACHERS  WERE 

I.   CHARLES  G.  FINNEY 

When,  in  the  winter  of  1851-52,  I  was 
a  young  clerk  in  the  office  of  the  chief 
engineer  of  a  railroad  office  in  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  away  from  my  family  and 
home,  I  was  won  to  Christ  by  a  personal 
letter  from  a  friend  in  the  village  of  my  boy- 
hood. In  the  providence  of  God  there 
was,  just  at  that  time,  a  series  of  revival 
meetings  being  conducted  in  Hartford  un- 
der the  lead  of  Charles  G.  Finney,  the 
eminent  evangelist.  Although  up  to  the 
hour  of  my  act  of  Christian  decision  I  had 
not  heard  President  Finney,  nor  even  been 
interested  enough  in  the  matter  to  be 
present  at  any  of  his  meetings,  I  at  once 
began  attending  them,  and,  as  a  result,  I 

1 


2  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

received  my  earliest  formal  instruction  in 
the  Christian  life  from  that  remarkable 
man,  and  from  three  others,  at  a  time 
when  I  greatly  needed  guidance. 

And  I  am  profoundly  grateful  to  God 
that  I  received  my  first  formal  religious 
instruction  from  this  man  and  in  this  way. 
For,  in  consequence,  I  was  not  trained  in 
any  recognized  school  of  denominational 
theology.  President  Finney  had  theologi- 
cal views,  but  they  were  his  own  views. 
He  had  been  trained  a  lawyer,  but  he  had 
never  been  taught  in  a  theological  school, 
nor  would  he  have  been  approved  by  any 
then  existing  one.  He  held  positive  theo- 
logical views  that  are  called  "  Calvinistic," 
and  others  that  are  called  distinctively  "  Ar- 
minian."  Ordinary  theologians  would  say 
that  these  two  are  inconsistent  with  each 
other.  President  Finney  had  no  con- 
cern about  that.  He  held  both,  and  he 
declared  both — consistent  or  inconsistent. 
He  held  and  declared  still  other  theologi- 
cal views,  without  asking  or  thinking  how 


Who  These  Four  Were  3 

they  were  to  be  reconciled  with  the  labels 
of  any  recognized  school. 

But  President  Finney  won  souls  to 
Christ,  and  was  a  power  for  good  in  this 
country  in  his  day  and  generation.  Men 
who  heard  him  were  influenced  in  spirit 
and  in  thought.  One  of  the  places  where 
his  remarkable  work  was  done  in  his  early 
evangelistic  life  was  in  Rome,  New  York, 
where  Albert  Barnes  was  a  young  man, 
and  just  then  preparing  for  the  ministry. 
Albert  Barnes  heard  Charles  G.  Finney, 
and  was  influenced  by  him.  Because  of 
his  preaching  some  phases  of  truth  to 
which  he  was  thus  influenced,  Albert 
Barnes  was  called  a  "  heretic  "  by  certain 
theologians,  and  the  great  Presbyterian 
church  in  this  country  was  divided  over 
those  teachings  for  a  generation.  Yet  a 
vast  multitude  called  Albert  Barnes  a  saint, 
in  view  of  his  spirit  and  his  mode  of  ex- 
pressing God's  truth. 

I  have  always  been  grateful  that  my  first 
religious   teaching   when    I    had    entered 


4  My  Four  Religions  Teachers 

Christ's  service  was  from  a  teacher  who 
uttered  God's  truth  positively,  but  in  such 
a  way  that  neither  he  nor  I  could  be 
counted  of  any  recognized  school  of  de- 
nominational theology.  And  I  have  never 
since  been  obliged  to  count  myself  of  any 
one  denomination  in  strict  and  conven- 
tional theological  views. 


II.   DAVID  HAWLEY 

Before  I  had  yet  connected  myself  with 
the  church  by  formal  profession,  I  was  led 
to  visit  a  mission  Sunday-school,  started 
only  the  week  before  by  the  Hartford  City 
Missionary  Society  in  one  of  the  rougher 
portions  of  the  city,  at  the  junction  of  two 
of  the  streets  near  the  river  bank.  Enter- 
ing the  door  of  the  old  building,  to  find  my 
way  through  dark  passage-ways  dimly 
lighted  by  candles  at  noonday,  up  two 
flights  of  rickety  stairs  to  the  garret  room 
where  the  new'  little  mission  school  was 
held,  I  met  at  the  entrance  doorway  David 


Who  These  Four  Were  5 

Hawley,  the  city  missionary.  He  was 
also  making  his  first  visit  to  that  Sunday- 
school,  although  he  had  been  the  means 
of  gathering  and  starting  it.  He  had 
not  been  present  the  opening  Sunday,  so 
he  and  I  first  entered  the  room  together. 
Being  unexpectedly  chosen  superintendent 
of  that  new  mission  school,  my  first  Chris- 
tian work  was  done  there,  under  the  over- 
sight of  David  Hawley.  And  thus  I  came 
under  the  training  of  my  second  teacher  in 
the  religious  life,  and  my  peculiar  teacher 
in  active  Christian  work  for  souls. 

David  Hawley,  like  Charles  G.  Finney, 
was  anything  but  a  formal  theological  in- 
structor. He  was  a  layman,  but  he  was 
a  master  in  applied  Christianity.  He  loved 
Christ  and  he  loved  souls.  He  knew  the 
souls  of  sinners,  and  the  Saviour  of  sinners. 
From  him  I  learned  how  to  work  for  souls, 
and  in  him  I  saw  the  spirit  that  one  should 
have  and  manifest  in  that  work.  He  was  a 
rare  man.  I  know  that  God  meant  good 
to  me  in  bringing  me  under  the  example 


6  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

and  influence  of  this  man  of  God,  and  I  am 
grateful  accordingly. 


III.   ELIAS  R.  BEADLE 

Just  at  the  time  of  the  great  ingather- 
ing of  souls  in  Hartford  under  the  preach- 
ing of  Charles  G.  Finney,  a  new  church 
was  organized  in  that  city,  and  its  first  pas- 
tor was  one  who  had  remarkable  power 
over  young  men,  and  special  training  to 
enable  him  to  exercise  that  power.  That 
pastor  was  Elias  R.  Beadle.  He  also,  like 
Charles  G.  Finney,  had  had  no  training  in  a 
theological  seminary.  He  had  studied  for 
the  ministry  under  Dr.  Edward  N.  Kirk  in 
Albany.  Dr.  Kirk  had  been  prominent 
as  an  evangelist,  especially  among  college 
students.  After  he  left  Albany,  Dr.  Kirk 
was  in  Boston ;  and  it  was  in  his  church 
there  that  Dwight  L.  Moody  first  made  a 
confession  of  his  Christian  faith. 

Dr.  Beadle  went  for  a  while  to  Syria  as 
a  missionary, — not  a  place  to  incline  him 


WJio  These  Four  Were  7 

toward  preaching  systematic  denomina- 
tional theology.  After  he  returned  from 
the  East,  he  labored  for  a  while  as  a  city 
missionary  in  New  Orleans.  When  he 
came  to  Hartford  as  pastor  over  a  church 
including  many  young  people  new  in  the 
Christian  life,  he  entered  with  his  whole 
soul  into  their  leading  and  training.  Our 
new  City  Mission  work  was  work  after  his 
own  heart.  He  was  with  David  Hawley 
and  myself  in  whatever  good  service  he 
could  render;  and  I  learned  much  from 
him  as  to  spirit  and  method  in  Christ's 
service.  He  gave  me  added  interest  in 
foreign  missionary  service;  at  his  sugges- 
tion I  thought  of  going  to  the  then  new 
Micronesian  field,  and  I  probably  should 
have  gone  except  that  God  summoned 
me  just  then  to  another  special  mission 
service. 

In  his  power  of  speaking  timely  and  im- 
pressive words  to  individuals  and  to  audi- 
ences in  the  spirit  and  likeness  of  Christ, 
Dr.  Beadle  exceeded  any  person  whom  I 


8  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ever  knew.  In  that  work,  rather  than  in 
his  ordinary  Sunday  sermons,  was  his 
power  as  a  pastor  year  by  year.  The  very 
tones  of  his  voice,  and  his  chosen  words  of 
address,  seemed  to  speak  love  for  Christ 
and  love  for  souls.  In  this  he  was  ever  an 
example  and  an  inspiration  to  others. 

Dr.  Beadle  was  my  counselor  and  helper 
when  the  call  came  to  me  to  go  to  the 
Civil  War  as  a  chaplain ;  and  in  many  ways 
I  still  owe  him  a  debt  of  gratitude.  When 
I  came  to  Philadelphia,  in  1875,  I  found 
Dr.  Beadle  a  power  for  good  in  this  city, 
and  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  prized 
and  loved  by  me  as  one  of  the  teachers  by 
whom  I  was  taught  in  Christ's  spirit  and 
service  in  my  earliest,  and  in  my  later, 
Christian  life. 


IV.    HORACE  BUSHNELL 

Fourth  among  the  remarkable  and  God- 
given  teachers  of  my  early  Christian  life, 
for  whom  I  have  reason  to  be  grateful,  and 


Who  These  Four  Were  9 

whose  impress  and  influence  I  shall  feel  so 
long  as  I  have  life,  was  Horace  Bushnell. 
And  he,  like  all  the  other  three,  was  any- 
thing but  a  strict  theologian  of  any  known 
school  or  type  or  special  denomination. 
Yet  he  was  truly  a  theologian  ;  but  he  was 
one  of  his  own  sort,  more  likely  to  in- 
fluence others  by  his  thinking  and  teach- 
ing than  to  be  specially  influenced  by 
them.  He  was  one  of  the  pastors  in  Hart- 
ford who  cordially  co-worked  with  Charles 
G.  Finney  at  the  time  of  his  series  of  evan- 
gelistic labors  there.  He  was  recognized 
as  a  man  of  remarkable  intellectual  power, 
but  he  was  by  many  thought  to  be  not  a 
safe  guide  theologically. 

It  was  at  a  meeting  of  friends  of  the 
Hartford  City  Missionary  Society,  in  the 
social  parlors  of  the  Pearl  Street  Congre- 
gational Church,  of  which  Dr.  Beadle  was 
the  new  pastor,  that  my  first  acquaintance 
was  made  with  good  Dr.  Bushnell.  And 
that  was  indeed  a  new  starting-point  in  my 
religious  life,  to  which  I  ever  look  back 


IO         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

gratefully.  As  the  young  superintendent  of 
the  Morgan  Street  mission  school, — where 
Dr.  Bushnell's  eldest  daughter,  the  poet- 
saint,  was  my  valued  helper  as  a  teacher, 
— I  was  at  this  meeting,  following  Father 
Hawley  with  a  statement  of  the  possibili- 
ties and  needs  of  the  city  mission  field. 
Dr.  Bushnell  sat  in  a  chair  just  before  me, 
showing  a  kind  interest  in  my  words.  At 
the  close  of  the  service  he  stepped  up 
and  gave  me  greeting,  and  expressed  an 
interest  in  me  and  my  work.  He  said  he 
should  be  glad  to  aid  me  at  any  time  and 
in  any  way  in  his  power.  That  was  his 
first  helpful  work  as  my  personal  teacher. 

Dr.  Bushnell  meant  what  he  said  at  that 
time.  From  that  hour  he  did  aid  me  in 
my  religious  thinking  and  in  my  Christian 
living  and  doing ;  and  because  he  was  not 
a  theologian  of  any  recognized  school  he 
gave  me  more  aid  than  he  could  have 
given  had  he  been  so.  His  greatest  ser- 
vice to  me,  as  it  has  been  to  many  another, 
was  in  bringing  me  to  see  that  God's  mes- 


Who  These  Four  Were  II 

sage  or  gift  to  us  in  the  Scriptures  is  a 
gift  to  our  "  imagination,"  rather  than  to 
our  positive  knowledge;  that  Bible  truth, 
at  the  best,  suggests  to  us  far  more  than  it 
can  define.  To  gain  this  truth  is  to  have 
more  than  can  be  given  by  the  explicit  and 
exact  tenets  of  any  one  school  of  theology, 
or  of  all  schools  of  theology  put  together. 
Dr.  Bushnell  had  his  opinion  as  to  what 
would  be  for  me  the  best  sphere  of  religious 
activity ;  but  he  was  sure  that  God  knew 
best,  and  he  wanted  me  to  be  thus  led. 


GODS    CHOSEN    WAY    FOR    ME 

It  will  be  seen  that,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  I  was  from  the  first  privileged  to  be 
under  the  influence  and  instruction  of  four 
religious  teachers  of  remarkable  and  ex- 
ceptional power,  apart  from,  and  not  as  a 
follower  of,  any  one  theological  school. 
As  a  result  of  this  I  have  been  helped  in 
my  personal  life  work  as  a  non-denomina- 
tional  worker   and  writer  for  Christ  and 


12  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

for  souls.  While  not  saying  or  suggesting 
that  this  is  the  better  way  for  all,  I  can  and 
do  say  that  I  am  glad  and  grateful  that  this 
was  God's  way  for  me.  Therefore  it  is  that 
I  now  speak  particularly  and  with  feelings 
of  peculiar  gratitude  of  these  four  religious 
teachers  whom  God  let  me  have  when 
starting  in  his  service  in  the  Christian  life. 
No  one  of  these  four  men  was  trained 
in  and  bound  by  the  tenets  of  any  dis- 
tinctive and  recognized  school  of  denomi- 
national theology.  In  consequence,  for 
them  the  word  of  God  was  not  bound  by 
ordinary  restrictions.  All  these  teachers 
were  earnest,  devoted,  evangelistic  soul- 
lovers  in  God's  service.  Providentially  I 
was  summoned  to  labor,  from  the  begin- 
ning of  my  Christian  life,  in  fields  for  which 
ordinary  denominational  religious  training 
would  not  have  specially  fitted  or  helped 
me,  but  which  the  training  of  just  such 
men  as  these  would.  My  work  in  God's 
plan  came  to  be  city-mission  service  and 
the    non  -  denominational    Sunday  -  school 


Who  These  Four  Were  13 

work,  afterwards  the  army  chaplaincy,  and 
still  later  a  non-denominational  religious 
editorial  work.  God  knows,  as  man  does 
not,  the  special  work  he  has  for  every  one 
of  his  children  to  do,  and  how  to  help  him 
for  and  in  that  work.  And  to  this  truth  I 
bear  fresh,  glad,  grateful  testimony  out  of 
my  varied  life  experiences. 


PART  II 

REVIVALIST,   REFORMER,  AND 
EDUCATOR  :    CHARLES  G. 

FINNEY 

Young  people  of  to-day  can  have  no 
idea  of  the  place  occupied  in  the  minds  of 
the  community  half  a  century  ago,  and  a 
score  of  years  before  then,  by  Charles  G. 
Finney,  as  a  revivalist,  a  reformer,  and  an 
educator.  He  was  loved  and  he  was  hated, 
he  was  respected  and  he  was  feared,  as 
were  few  men  of  his  time,  and  as  no  or- 
dinary man  can  be  at  any  time. 

Charles  G.  Finney  stood  quite  by  himself 
in  thought  and  in  action,  and  he  was  willing 
to  stand  there  as  long  as  he  could  feel  that 
God  would  have  him  in  that  position.  He 
drew  a  fresh  line  in  theological  thinking, — 
or,  rather,  his  theology,  while  positive,  was 
outside  of  all  lines.     He  was  all  by  himself 

15 


1 6         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

in  methods  of  evangelistic  work  and  in 
practical  ideas  of  reform  in  the  customs 
and  ways  of  thinking  in  the  American 
community  of  then.  Along  his  newly 
drawn  line  of  thought  and  practice  his 
friends  and  his  enemies  ranged  themselves, 
and  their  views  of  the  leader  naturally 
shaped  their  views  of  one  another. 

HIS    EARLY    LIFE 

Although  of  the  best  New  England 
stock  in  his  family  descent,  and  born  in 
famous  Litchfield  County,  Connecticut,  Fin- 
ney was,  in  his  early  years,  under  no  such 
influences  as  would  promote  his  moral  and 
religious  welfare.  Yet  he  enjoyed  reading, 
and  was  inclined  to  study.  So  far  was  he, 
as  a  young  man,  however,  from  giving 
any  promise  of  being  a  religious  leader, 
that,  while  he  was  the  choir  leader  in  a 
Presbyterian  church  in  New  York  State, 
members  of  the  church  proposed  among 
themselves  to  make  him  a  subject  of  spe- 
cial prayer.     But  his  pastor  objected,  re- 


Charles  G.  Finney  ly 

marking,  as  one  of  his  biographers  states, 
"  that  it  was  of  no  use ;  that  he  did  not 
believe  that  Finney  would  ever  be  con- 
verted, since  he  had  already  sinned  against 
so  much  light  that  his  heart  was  hope- 
lessly hardened." 

HIS    BEGINNINGS    AS    A    LAWYER   AND 
AS   A    PREACHER 

Finney  worked  his  way  into  the  study 
and  practice  of  law.  He  was  nearly  thirty 
years  old  when  he  first  owned  a  Bible. 
He  saw  so  many  references  to  it  in  law 
books  that  he  bought  one  to  examine,  and 
he  became  deeply  interested  in  it.  His 
conversion  was  like  Paul's,  remarkable  and 
complete.  God  seems  to  have  seen,  or 
to  have  made,  possibilities  in  him  that  his 
pastor  had  deemed  out  of  the  question. 
From  the  beginning  of  his  Christian  life 
he  felt  it  to  be  his  mission  to  preach  the 
Christ  whose  service  he  had  now  entered. 
Leaving  a  case  before  the  courts  in  which 
he  was  employed,  he  said  to  his  client,  "  I 


1 8         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

have  received  a  retainer  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  to  plead  his  cause,  and  I  cannot 
plead  yours."  This  so  impressed  the 
client,  who  was  a  deacon  of  the  church, 
that  he  at  once  settled  the  lawsuit,  and 
became  a  truer  child  of  God.  From  that 
time  Charles  G.  Finney  was  an  earnest 
worker  for  Christ  and  for  souls.  Yet 
his  preaching  ever  showed  in  its  method 
and  manner  the  training  and  habits  of 
the  lawyer-advocate,  as  did  Henry  F. 
Durant's. 

His  first  Christian  work  was  wholly 
with  individuals,  and  that  work  he  loved 
to  the  last.  Indeed,  one  of  the  criticisms 
of  him  as  a  preacher  was  that  he  was  not  a 
conventional  sermonizer,  but  that  even  in 
the  pulpit  he  seemed  to  be  talking  to  in- 
dividuals, instead  of  preaching  a  sermon 
to  a  general  audience  after  the  ordinary 
method.  But  he  did  win  souls  to  a  re- 
markable extent.  He  was  sent  for,  or  he 
went  unsought,  from  place  to  place,  and 
everywhere  a  rich  blessing  seemed  to  ac- 


Charles  G.  Finney  19 

company  his  labors.  Of  course,  such  a 
preacher  aroused  opposition  by  what  he 
said,  and  by  the  way  he  said  it.  His  early 
labors  were  at  a  time  when  excitement  was 
great  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  As  Finney 
was  outspoken  in  his  views  on  that  subject, 
as  well  as  on  others,  he  made  enemies  in 
that  way.  Opposition  gave  him  more 
friends  and  added  power. 

HIS    FIRST    REVIVAL   WORK 

Mr.  Finney's  early  revival  labors  were  in 
villages  and  towns  in  northern  New  York 
state,  where  he  resided  when  he  was  won 
to  Christ.  Wherever  he  went  he  was  blest 
in  winning  souls  to  Christ.  Even  those 
who  disagreed  with  him  in  his  theological 
views  recognized  the  fact  that  God  was 
with  him  in  his  activities  in  God's  service. 
A  remarkable  revival  accompanied  his 
labors  in  Rome,  New  York.  Mr.  Finney 
was  ever  unfavorable  to  anything  like  ex- 
citement in  his  preaching  or  in  its  effects. 
He  was  quiet  in  his  style  of  speaking,  and 


20  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

he  sought  to  have  those  quiet  who  were 
interested  in  the  truth  he  pressed  on  them. 
At  Rome  all  classes  were  reached  by  him, 
and  the  religious  tone  of  the  whole  com- 
munity was  changed.  Among  those  under 
his  influence  at  that  time  in  that  place  were 
Thomas  Brainerd,  afterwards  pastor  of  the 
Pine  Street  Presbyterian  Church  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  Albert  Barnes,  the  leader  of 
the  New  School  portion  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  in  the  United  States. 

Young  Brainerd  was  won  to  Christ 
under  Finney's  preaching.  Albert  Barnes, 
although  already  intending  to  be  a  clergy- 
man, was  greatly  influenced  in  his  thinking 
and  in  his  course  by  Finney.  Mr.  Barnes 
wrote  of  Mr.  Finney  about  this  time:  "Few 
men  in  our  country  have  been  as  well  fitted 
to  act  on  the  higher  order  of  minds,  or  to 
bring  men,  proud  in  their  philosophy  or 
their  own  righteousness,  to  the  foot  of  the 
cross.  As  a  result  of  this  great  revival  of 
religion  [in  Rome],  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  persons  were  added  to  the 


Charles  G.  Finney  21 

church  on  one  occasion.  Among  these 
were  all  the  merchants  and  all  the  lawyers. 
Since  the  fall  of  man  was  such  a  thing 
known  before,  that  all  the  lawyers  in  any- 
place were  converted  to  the  faith  of  the 
Saviour  ?  " 

HE   STIRS    NEW   YORK    CITY 

New  York  City  was  a  great  center  in  the 
early  thirties,  as  it  is  to-day.  Finney  be- 
came a  Presbyterian  pastor,  and  a  revival- 
ist, there.  He  won  so  many  converts  that 
he  filled  many  churches  with  young  work- 
ers. Indeed,  it  was  said  long  afterwards 
that  no  man  in  this  country  was  ever  the 
means  of  starting  so  many  new  churches 
formed  out  of  his  converts  as  Finney. 
Friends  hired  the  Chatham  Street  Theater 
in  which  he  could  preach.  Later,  the  long 
famous  "Broadway  Tabernacle "  was  built 
as  a  place  for  him  to  be  heard  in.  While  it 
was  building,  the  story  was  started  that  it 
was  to  be  an  abolition  and  amalgamation 
hive,  and  it  was  set  on  fire.    New  York  fire- 


22  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

men  would  not  attempt  to  save  it,  and  the 
roof  was  burned  off.  But  the  building  was 
finished,  according  to  Finney's  plans,  as  an 
auditorium.  A  Congregational  church  was 
formed  there,  with  Finney  as  its  pastor. 

HIS   WORK    AT    OBERLIN 

Because  there  was  no  religious  paper  in 
the  city  to  give  place  to  his  views  and 
work,  the  New  York  Evangelist  was 
started  primarily  for  that  purpose.  As  no 
theological  seminary  taught  the  views  he 
held,  Oberlin  College  was  organized  and 
its  plans  were  broadened,  on  the  foundation 
of  the  "  Oberlin  Collegiate  Institute,"  which 
had,  before  this  time,  been  started  by  two 
enterprising  Vermont  Christian  workers, 
Messrs.  John  Shipherd  of  Pawlet  and  T.  P. 
Stewart  of  Pittsford.  This  new  movement 
was  made,  with  the  aid  of  New  York  dona- 
tions, in  order  to  enable  Dr.  Finney  to  train 
workers,  and  he  was  chosen  its  first  presi- 
dent. But,  wherever  he  was,  he  reserved 
a  full  share  of  his  time  and  strength  for 


Charles  G.  Finney  23 

evangelistic  and  revival  work,  and  then  he 
labored  far  and  wide  in  this  line.  There 
was  probably  no  man  in  America,  before 
the  day  of  Dwight  L.  Moody,  who  was  the 
means  of  winning  so  many  souls  to  Christ 
as  was  Charles  G.  Finney,  or  whose  writings 
as  to  such  work  were  so  widely  influential 
in  this  country  and  in  Europe. 

HIS   WORK    IN    HARTFORD 

It  was  in  the  winter  of  185 1-52  that  Presi- 
dent Finney  conducted  a  series  of  revival 
services  in  Hartford.  An  unfortunate  dif- 
ference between  Dr.  Joel  Hawes  and  Dr. 
Horace  Bushnell,  Hartford  pastors,  stood 
in  the  way  of  union  among  the  churches 
in  these  revival  services.  President  Finney 
set  himself  to  have  this  difficulty  removed, 
and  was  successful.  The  meetings  were 
very  largely  attended,  and  were  greatly  in- 
fluential. Although,  as  I  have  said,  I  had 
attended  none  of  these  meetings,  nor  felt 
an  interest  in  them,  I  was,  soon  after  their 
beginning,  won  to  Christ  by  a  loving  letter 


24         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

from  a  dear  friend  at  a  distance.  Then, 
in  my  devotion  to  my  newly  found 
Saviour,  I  attended,  night  after  night,  the 
services  led  by  President  Finney.  I  had 
my  earliest  training  in  the  Christian  life 
under  him ;  hence  I  bear  him  in  mind 
most  vividly  and  gratefully. 

I  never  heard  such  sermons  as  those, 
before  or  since.  There  was  something  in 
them,  as  I  have  already  said,  of  Henry  F. 
Du rant's  lawyer-like  directness  of  appeal 
to  the  hearer's  conscience  and  best  con- 
sciousness, with  something  of  Dwight  L. 
Moody's  unconventional  and  unmistakable 
application  of  the  truth  to  the  individual's 
heart  and  sound  sense.  Yet  Finney  was 
like  neither  Durant  nor  Moody;  he  was 
Finney  and  was  like  Finney,  and  like  no 
other  man.  There  was  no  getting  away 
from  him,  nor  thinking  of  anything  else 
while  he  preached.  There  were  no  appeals 
to  mere  feeling ;  the  feelings,  if  moved,  were 
moved  by  and  through  the  conscience  and 
reason,  and  as  an  inevitable  result  of  the 


Charles  G.  Finney  25 

simple  truth  pressed  by  itself.  His  prayers 
were  as  simple,  as  direct,  and  as  impressive, 
in  their  way,  as  were  his  sermons. 

HIS   VIGOR    IN   AGE 

After  I  had  been  nearly  twenty  years  in 
active  Christian  service,  I  was  at  Oberlin, 
to  attend  the  National  Triennial  Congrega- 
tional Council.  There,  again,  I  saw  Presi- 
dent Finney  in  his  ripe  old  age.  He  was 
in  his  eightieth  year,  but  still  in  the  full 
vigor  of  his  Christian  manhood.  His  ad- 
dress of  an  hour  before  that  great  assem- 
blage of  prominent  clergymen  will  not  be 
forgotten  by  any  who  heard  it.  It  was  on 
the  "  Endowment  of  the  Holy  Ghost,"  ever 
a  favorite  theme  with  him. 

That  was  a  memorable  occasion.  Dr. 
William  Ives  Buddington,  Moderator  of 
the  Council,  said  the  day  following  as  ex- 
pressing the  glad  feelings  of  all  in  view  of 
the  differences  of  former  days  and  of  the 
loving  accord  following  :  "  I  rejoice  to  stand 
this  day  upon  the  grave  of  buried  prejudice. 


26         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

It  is  true  that  Oberlin  has  been  a  battle-cry 
in  our  ranks  for  a  generation.  It  is  so  no 
longer,  but  a  name  of  peace,  of  inspiration, 
and  of  hope."  And  as  Professor  Wright 
says,  "  the  widespread  and  growing  useful- 
ness of  Oberlin  is  pre-eminently  due  to 
Finney's  direct  influence  upon  the  com- 
munity and  upon  the  successive  genera- 
tions of  students  who  gathered  there 
through  the  forty  years  of  his  connection 
with  the  institution." 

Charles  G.  Finney  has  a  prominent  place 
in  the  volume  of  Bartlett's  "  Modern  Agi- 
tators." A  volume  is  given  to  his  life  and 
labors,  by  Professor  G.  Frederick  Wright, 
in  the  Boston  series  of  "  American  Reli- 
gious Leaders."  He  has  prominence  as  an 
American  educator,  from  the  college  he 
founded,  from  the  clergymen  and  teachers 
he  trained,  and  from  the  multitude  of  prac- 
tical evangelists  he  set  at  work  for  Christ. 
His  spirit  and  work  are  perpetuated  in  the 
affections  of  the  myriads  he  won  to  Christ 
and  to   Christ's  service.      When  it  is  re- 


Charles  G.  Finney  27 

membered  that  Finney  was  viewed  by  so 
many  with  suspicion  or  hatred  in  his  earlier 
labors,  we  see  again  how  much  easier  it  is 
to  form  a  right  estimate  of  a  man's  work 
for  Christ  and  for  his  fellows  when  his  work 
is  done  and  looked  back  upon,  than  during 
the  progress  of  the  battle  in  which  he  and 
we  have  a  part. 


A  CITY  MISSIONARY'S  CHRISTLIKE 

LIFE  AMONG  THE  POOR  : 

DAVID  HAWLEY 

"  Father  Hawley,"  as  he  came  to  be  gen- 
erally called  in  the  Hartford  community 
and  wherever  he  was  known  or  known 
of,  was  an  eminently  successful  and,  in  a 
certain  sense,  a  model  or  pattern  city- 
missionary.  Yet  he  had  no  training  for 
his  work.  When  the  Hartford  City  Mis- 
sionary Society  was  organized,  while  the 
work  that  was  to  be  undertaken  by  it  was 
comparatively  novel  in  this  country,  David 
Hawley,  who  was  a  lover  of  Christ  and  of 
souls,  was  called  from  his  country  home  in 
Farmington  to  be  the  missionary  of  that 
society.  He  was  a  man  of  choice  New 
England  stock,  his  brother  being  the  father 
of  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  the  distinguished 
general  in  the  Civil  War,  and  later  United 
States  Senator.  David  Hawley  had  been 
prominent  and  successful  in  personal  work 
28 


David  Hawley  29 

for  souls  in  his  country  home.  He  had 
taken  active  part  in  church  prayer-meetings 
and  in  local  "  revival  "  services ;  but  for  his 
work  in  the  city  mission  field  he  had  no 
special  preparation  or  pattern. 

He  took  hold  of  it  with  hearty  interest, 
and  he  persevered  in  it  with  earnestness 
and  most  successfully.  "  Coming  to  Hart- 
ford was  a  door  I  never  pushed  open,"  said 
Father  Hawley  in  looking  back  on  his 
course,  when  all  deemed  him  eminently 
successful  in  that  field.  But  God  knew 
the  man,  and  knew  the  field,  as  no  one  on 
earth  did  ;  and  when  God  opened  the  door, 
and  directed  David  Hawley  to  enter  in, 
God  gave  success  in  that  field  to  the  man 
he  had  chosen  for  it.  As  I  was  privileged 
to  labor  with  Father  Hawley  in  that  field, 
and  as  he  and  I  learned  lessons  that  God 
would  have  us  know,  those  years  were  im- 
portant to  both  of  us,  and  to  others ;  and 
I  speak  of  some  of  his  experiences  and  ele- 
ments of  power  with  loving  and  grateful 
remembrance. 


30         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

HIS    EARLY   WORK    AND    INFLUENCE 
IN    HARTFORD 

It  was  in  October,  185 1,  that  Father 
Hawley  began  his  work  in  Hartford.  He 
quickly  made  himself  acquainted  with  his 
new  field  and  its  necessities,  and  as  quickly 
planned  and  acted  in  behalf  of  those  whom 
he  found  in  want.  His  first  important 
move  was  the  gathering,  in  the  early 
spring  of  1852,  of  the  mission  school  in 
Morgan  Street,  which  has  never  been  dis- 
continued. Again  he  organized  one  on 
Albany  Avenue,  and  yet  later  one  in  Park 
Street.  Meantime  he  visited  outside  fami- 
lies far  and  near,  won  their  sympathy,  led 
their  children  into  the  church  Sunday- 
schools  or  into  those  he  had  organized, 
and  themselves  to  the  church  congrega- 
tions, or  into  neighborhood  prayer-meet- 
ings started  by  him. 

He  reported  the  facts  of  his  canvass  and 
mission  work  to  the  city  churches,  and 
stimulated  them  to  fresh  activity ;  he  laid 
his  hands   on  the  young  converts  of  the 


David  Hawley  31 

revival  of  1851-52,  in  connection  with  the 
labors  of  President  Finney,  and  set  them  at 
work  and  guided  them  in  it,  in  varied  fields 
of  Christian  effort ;  and  he  drew  out  scores 
of  waiting  members  from  the  different 
churches  to  follow  him  in  kindly  visitation 
from  house  to  house. 

Before  long,  religion  had  new  power  in 
the  city  of  his  labors,  and  a  new  hold  on  its 
people.  Father  Hawley's  work  was  felt 
everywhere  in  Hartford.  Churches  of  other 
denominations  made  new  efforts  in  the  line 
of  his  successful  labors.  Christian  activi- 
ties were  no  longer  limited  to  one  street. 
Mission-schools  and  preaching-stations  dot- 
ted the  city  borders.  Those  who  did  not 
seek  the  churches  were  sought  by  the 
churches.  Hartford  came  to  be  recognized 
as  clearly  in  advance  of  other  cities  in  its 
efforts  at  home  evangelism.  Its  example 
was  imitated  elsewhere.  East  and  west, 
cities  were  taking  pattern  of  its  methods, 
and  seeking  counsel  of  its  representative 
missionary. 


32  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

Father  Hawley  was  again  and  again 
invited  to  other  important  fields  to  do  work 
similar  to  that  which  he  had  inaugurated 
here.  But  here  he  remained  until  he  had 
trained  a  generation  of  skilled  workers  in 
mission-school  service,  and  had  been  largely- 
instrumental  in  bringing  about  an  entire 
change  in  the  policy  and  modes  of  work  in 
the  Hartford  churches  as  to  the  poor  and 
the  non-church-going  classes  of  the  city. 

To  estimate  at  their  true  value  these 
earlier  labors  of  Father  Hawley  in  Hart- 
ford, it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  as  already 
intimated,  that  there  were  then  few  prece- 
dents in  city  mission  work  in  this  country, 
and  no  such  variety  of  helps  to  its  prosecu- 
tion as  are  now  available.  The  Five  Points 
Mission,  in  New  York,  had  only  a  short 
time  before  called  public  attention  anew  to 
the  importance  and  practicability  of  such 
labors,  but  only  here  and  there  had  similar 
experiments  been  elsewhere  attempted. 

Sunday-school  singing  of  the  present 
style  was  almost  unknown.    Sunday-school 


David  Hawley  33 

papers  and  pictures  were  in  no  such  variety 
as  now.  The  foundations  of  the  mission- 
school  system  were  then  being  laid,  and 
new  modes  of  procedure  must  be  origi- 
nated at  every  step  of  progress. 

HIS    POWER    IN    PUBLIC    ADDRESS. 

The  ability  of  Father  Hawley  to  meet  all 
the  emergencies  of  such  a  work  at  such  a 
time;  his  rare  fertility  in  expedients;  his 
unfailing  readiness  in  both  planning  and 
doing;  his  sound  judgment  in  deciding 
what  was  best,  and  his  skill  and  tact  in 
carrying  it  into  execution;  his  capacity  to 
direct  others  in  work,  and  to  train  them  to 
its  best  performance, —  all  this,  together 
with  his  growing  power  in  public  address, 
and  his  remarkable  control  over  those 
among  whom  he  was  working,  proved  him 
to  be  a  man  of  no  mean  order  of  talent, — 
a  genius  in  his  line. 

Indeed,  it  may  fairly  be  claimed  that 
Hartford  has  reason  to  point  with  honest 
pride  to  the  record  of  David  Hawley  as  a 


34         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

man  of  originality  and  force, — a  man  of 
mark  and  permanent  influence  in  an  impor- 
tant sphere.  He  had  a  large  place  to  fill, 
and  he  filled  it  well.  He  had  a  great  work 
to  do,  and  he  did  it  efficiently.  He  was  a 
man  of  God,  complete,  thoroughly  fur- 
nished unto  all  his  good  works. 

Despite  David  Hawley's  lack  of  early 
special  intellectual  training,  his  native  pow- 
ers of  mind  did  not  fail  to  show  themselves 
to  advantage.  Not  only  was  he  eloquent, 
in  his  pathos  and  humor,  as  he  pleaded 
any  cause  which  had  his  heart,  but  there 
was  a  Bunyan-like  vigor  of  thought  and 
quaintness  of  conception  in  his  comments 
on  the  Scriptures  which  will  not  be  for- 
gotten by  those  who  were  much  with  him 
in  Sunday-school  and  prayer-meeting  work. 

I  recall  one  striking  illustration  of  this. 
It  was  in  the  summer  of  1859,  wnen  the 
daily  union  prayer-meetings  in  Hartford 
were  held  at  the  old  Unitarian  Church 
then  standing  on  the  corner  of  Asylum  and 
Trumbull  streets.     He  stepped  in  from  the 


David  Haw  ley  35 

street,  at  one  of  those  meetings,  just  as  the 
leader  was  reading  the  familiar  story  of 
Lazarus  and  Dives.  It  was  a  hot  summer's 
afternoon.  Mr.  Hawley  came  in  half  out 
of  breath,  as  if  he  had  hurried  to  the  place 
of  prayer  from  his  round  of  daily  toil ;  but 
his  ear  was  quick  to  catch  the  words  from 
the  Book  of  God.  He  took  his  seat,  but, 
as  an  invitation  was  given,  he  rose  to  speak. 
"  I  suppose,"  he  said,  "  that  Dives  had 
never  prayed  before  then.  That  was  his 
first  prayer.  He  could  have  prayed  before, 
but  he  hadn't  done  it.  It  seems  as  if  he 
didn't  dare  to  pray  for  much  the  first  time, 
as  if  he  would  only  venture  to  pray  for  just 
the  smallest  thing  he  could  think  of, — a  sin- 
gle drop  of  cold  water ;  that  was  all.  And  he 
didn't  ask  God  for  even  that.  No ;  he  had 
never  prayed  to  God,  and  he  didn't  dare  to 
begin  now.  '  There's  Father  Abraham,'  he 
said,  '  a  fellow-mortal ;  it  may  be  he'll  pity 
me.  Father  Abraham,  send  to  me — who  ? 
not  one  of  the  many  angels  flying  about 
on  God's   errands,  but  that  poor  beggar 


36  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

Lazarus,  who  used  to  lie  at  my  door  and 
live  on  my  crumbs.  Father  Abraham,  send 
the  beggar  Lazarus  with  one  drop  of  cold 
water  to  cool  my  burning  tongue.'  That 
was  all  of  Dives'  first  prayer.  But  even 
that  wasn't  granted.  No  ;  it  was  too  late, 
too  late ! 

"O  my  friends,  just  think  of  the  differ- 
ence in  his  case  and  yours  of  to-day  !  You 
can  pray,  not  for  little  things,  but  for  great. 
You  can  call,  not  on  Abraham,  but  on  God. 
You  can  ask  him  to  send,  not  Lazarus,  nor 
an  angel,  but  his  Son  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
to  bring  down  to  you,  not  a  single  drop  of 
cold  water,  but  a  cup  brimful  of  the  water 
of  life ;  and  you  can  drink,  and  have  your 
soul  satisfied.  Blessed  be  God  for  this 
privilege  of  prayer  !     Let  us  pray." 

HIS    TACT    IN    DEALING   WITH    ALL. 

Father  Hawley  was  as  skilful  in  the  use  of 
his  powers  as  he  was  original  in  his  mental 
characteristics.  He  showed  rare  tact  in  his 
sayings  and  doings,  whether  dealing  with  a 


David  Haw  ley  37 

mission  scholar  or  a  minister.  When,  for 
instance,  a  little  colored  fellow  ran  into  the 
Morgan  Street  school,  and  with  monkey- 
like agility  threw  himself  on  his  head  in 
front  of  the  desk,  and  shook  his  bare  feet 
in  the  face  of  the  superintendent,  who  was 
opening  his  Bible  to  read  a  lesson  for  the 
day,  Mr.  Hawley  quickly  turned  the  boy 
on  to  his  feet,  and  said  pleasantly,  as  he 
pointed  him  to  a  seat,  "All  right,  my  boy, 
only  the  other  end  up  in  this  room."  And 
the  boy  seemed  to  think  that  was  fair. 

When,  again,  a  reference  was  made,  at  a 
union  religious  meeting,  to  the  small  in- 
crease in  the  attendance  and  membership 
of  the  churches  for  some  time  back,  Mr. 
Hawley  reminded  the  churches  that  their 
efforts  had  been  largely  confined  to  work 
on  Main  Street  and  westward,  while  the 
masses  nearer  the  river  were  unreached. 
"  Cast  your  nets  on  the  other  side  of  the 
ship,  brethren,"  he  said,  "and  you'll  be 
hardly  able  to  draw  them  for  the  multi- 
tude of  fishes." 


38  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

His  work  brought  him  among  all  classes 
and  with  persons  of  every  shade  of  religious 
opinion;  but  he  never  had  trouble  with 
anybody  because  of  seeming  differences. 
No  one  could  make  an  issue  with  him. 

"  We'd  like  to  see  your  children  in  our 
Sunday-school,"  he  said  to  a  mother  one 
day. 

"  They  are  Catholics,"  she  answered,  with 
abrupt  positiveness. 

"Oh,  no  matter  for  that!  We'll  take 
them  just  as  soon"  he  said  pleasantly,  as  if 
that  removed  every  possible  barrier.  There 
were  Jews  who  contributed  regularly  to  his 
Christmas  mission-school  dinners,  because 
of  confidence  in  him  and  of  interest  in  his 
work.  On  the  other  hand,  he  and  his  co- 
workers arranged  to  have  the  Jewish  chil- 
dren at  those  dinners  provided  with  meats 
prepared  after  their  own  fashion,  that  their 
prejudices  might  not  be  offended. 

There  was  a  time,  quite  a  number  of  years 
ago,  when  some  of  the  Hartford  pastors  who 
have  now  passed  to  their  reward  thought 


David  Hawley  39 

that  Father  Hawley  was  not  ready  enough 
to  call  on  the  city  clergymen  to  bury  the 
dead  out  of  homes  he  visited,  but  was  him- 
self too  ready  to  conduct  a  funeral  service  in 
an  emergency.  Lay  work  was  then  by  no 
means  as  common  as  now  in  the  churches. 
Sensitiveness  on  the  subject  increased,  and 
at  one  of  the  anniversary  meetings  of  the 
City  Missionary  Society,  Mr.  Hawley  ad- 
mitted his  fault,  and  made  his  apologies. 

"  I  am  sometimes  asked,"  he  said,  "  why 
I  conduct  funerals.  Well,  that  isn't  exactly 
my  work,  and  I  suppose  I  oughtn't  to  do 
it.  But  sometimes  there  comes  to  my 
house  a  poor  woman  with  whose  garret- 
home  I  am  well  acquainted.  She  tells  me 
her  child  is  dead,  and  she  wants  him 
buried.  I  tell  her  to  go  to  a  minister. 
She  says  no ;  she  doesn't  know  any  minis- 
ter ;  but  she  knows  me,  and  the  little  boy 
knew  me,  and  she  wants  me  to  go  down 
and  bury  her  dead. 

"  So  I  go  out  to  my  stock  of  clothing 
and  look  up  a  few  second-hand  mourning 


40         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

garments,  for  I  know  how  poor  that  family 
is,  and  I  roll  up  a  little  bundle.  Then  I 
hitch  up  my  horse  and  go  down  to  the 
poor  woman's  home,  stopping  on  the  way 
to  hire  a  hack  at  half-price.  When  I  go 
up  the  old  stairs,  I  find  four  or  five  friends 
and  neighbors  there.  I  give  the  mother 
the  old  black  dress.  She  slips  it  on.  Then 
I  kneel  down  and  pray  with  them  there, 
and  maybe  I  say  a  few  words.  Then,  if  the 
coffin  is  a  small  one,  I  take  it  into  my  own 
wagon.  The  mother  and  the  few  friends 
get  into  the  hack,  and  we  go  to  the  bury- 
ing-ground.  There  I  help  lower  the  coffin 
into  the  grave,  and  cover  it  up.  Then  I 
take  the  mother  back  home,  and  try  to 
comfort  her,  or  to  provide  for  her  in  her 
need.  Maybe  this  is  all  wrong,  but  some- 
how I  feel  as  if  I  couldn't  help  it." 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  Father 
Hawley  was  never  disciplined  for  his  ser- 
vice with  the  mourning  poor.  The  Hart- 
ford clergymen  came  to  value  him  and  his 
work  more  and  more,  and  they  who  out- 


David  Hatvley  41 

lived  him  vied  with  one  another  in  paying 
honors  to  his  memory  at  his  funeral,  and 
subsequently  in  their  own  pulpits. 

HIS    BRIGHTNESS    OF    MIND 

Brightness  was  a  marked  quality  of 
David  Hawley's  mind.  There  was  a  sen- 
tentious pithiness  in  his  sayings,  with  an 
accompanying  humor,  which  is  almost  in- 
separable from  true  tenderness  of  feeling. 
This  made  more  effective  the  striking  con- 
trasts of  light  and  shade  by  which  he 
brought  into  relief  the  pictures  of  his  mis- 
sion work,  when  presenting  his  always 
notable  annual  reports  to  the  public.  Lis- 
teners hardly  knew  whether  the  laugh  or 
the  cry  ought  to  come  in  first;  so  they 
were  quite  likely  to  try  both  together. 

Many  will  remember  his  mention  of  the 
poor  garret-home  where  he  found  dinner 
cooking  over  an  old  stove  propped  up  with 
bricks,  and  with  no  door,  the  scanty  fire 
being  made  of  the  legs  of  the  last  chair 
from  the  dreary  room.     "  I  lifted  the  pot 


42  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

cover,"  he  said,  "and  there,  under  the  clean 
water,  I  saw  a  bare  bone  that  had  been 
cooked  over  and  over  again ;  and  above  it 
two  small  potatoes  and  an  onion  were 
chasing  each  other  around  looking  for 
meat."  "  One  hundred  tons  of  coal  given 
out  during  the  year,"  he  said,  in  making 
another  report.  "  Just  think  how  many 
little  fires  have  been  made  with  that  coal, 
how  many  little  feet  and  hands  have  been 
warmed  by  those  fires,  how  many  scanty 
meals  those  fires  have  cooked !  You  can't 
imagine  it,"  he  added,  "  but  I  can  !  "  His 
imagination  put  life  into  all  his  statistics. 

Describing  one  of  the  pitiful  funerals,  for 
conducting  which  he  had  been  making  ex- 
cuses, he  said,  in  his  peculiar  phrase :  "  As 
I  found  myself  minister,  undertaker,  and 
funeral  procession,  I  didn't  at  first  know 
what  position  I  ought  to  take  in  the  line ; 
but  as  I  had  all  the  mourners  with  me, — 
for  the  widow  was  in  my  wagon, — I  con- 
cluded it  was  right  for  me  just  then  to  fol- 
low the  hearse." 


David  Hawley  43 

COST   AND    WORTH    OF    LOVE   AND    LOYALTY 

Although  at  first  his  labors  were  largely 
in  the  direction  of  organizing  mission 
schools  and  gathering  the  unevangelized 
under  religious  influence,  he  came  gradu- 
ally and  naturally  into  the  work  of  provid- 
ing for  the  temporal  necessities  of  the 
poor  of  his  great  field.  When  he  began 
work  in  Hartford  he  had  every  department 
to  attend  to ;  but  as  intelligent  workers 
multiplied,  and  the  zeal  of  the  churches  in- 
creased, and  the  necessities  of  varied  ser- 
vice became  more  apparent,  it  was  meet 
that  some  one  should  be  designated  to 
"  serve  tables  "  for  the  "  daily  ministration  " 
to  the  needy ;  and  so  David  Hawley,  "  a 
man  full  of  faith  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost," 
was  appointed  "  over  this  business." 

The  demands  for  such  work,  and  his 
efforts  to  meet  them,  grew  with  the  growth 
of  Hartford  and  of  confidence  in  his  ability 
and  judgment  as  an  almoner  of  Christian 
bounties.     When  he  left  Hartford  for  Syra- 


44         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

cuse,  after  ten  years  of  labor  here,  he  re- 
ported that,  in  that  period,  he  had  received 
some  20,000  calls  for  charity,  and  made 
30,500  missionary  visits.  After  his  return 
he  reported,  for  a  single  year,  25,000  calls  on 
him  for  aid,  and  2,500  visits  made  by  him. 

Oh,  how  he  loved  this  work,  and  how 
he  was  loved  in  it!  In  the  spirit  of  his 
Master  he  was  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
the  infirmities  of  those  to  whom  he  minis- 
tered. He  gave  them  more  than  silver  and 
gold,  in  the  tender  sympathy  with  which 
he  shared  their  burdens.  "  I  don't  sleep 
nights,  Brother  Trumbull,"  he  said,  during 
one  severe  winter.  "  I  carry  three  thou- 
sand aching  hearts  to  bed  with  me,  and  I 
can't  sleep  for  thinking  of  their  sorrows." 
Kind  deeds  commonly  give  sweet  sleep  to 
their  doer,  but  Father  Hawley  was  so 
large-hearted  that  he  gave  even  of  his  re- 
ward to  the  poor. 

He  would  be  active  in  loving  even  when 
he  could  not  be  active  in  doing.  But  he 
was  paid  for  love  in  love.     That  was  given 


David  Hawley  45 

back  to  him  without  measure  or  stint. 
There  was  no  one  ever  like  him  to  the 
poor  in  Hartford,  and  this  they  recognized. 

"  Who  was  the  first  man  ?  "  was  asked 
of  a  scholar  in  Morgan  Street. 

"  Mr.  Hawley,"  he  answered  promptly. 

And  he  was  not  far  from  right.  Mr. 
Hawley  was  to  him  the  first  man, — the 
first  to  show  a  kindly  interest  in  him,  the 
first  to  bring  light  and  love  into  his 
wretched  home.  Mr.  Hawley  was,  in  this 
sense,  the  first  man  and  the  last  to  many  a 
child  of  poverty  in  Hartford.  A  touching 
illustration  of  this  occurred  in  the  earlier 
years  of  Mr.  Hawley's  labors  here.  On  a 
summer's  day  a  little  colored  boy  was 
pushed  into  the  Connecticut  River  by  some 
brutal  white  boys  from  a  raft  where  he  was 
playing.  He  called  loudly  for  help.  The 
cruel  prejudices  of  caste  were  worse  in 
that  city  forty  years  ago  than  they  are 
to-day,  and  those  who  could  have  rescued 
the  little  fellow  refused  their  aid.  Once 
and  again  he  sank  and  rose,  calling  pite- 


46         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ously  for  assistance.  As  he  came  to  the 
surface  of  the  water  for  the  third  time,  he 
turned  his  gaze  along  the  river  bank,  look- 
ing in  vain  for  a  single  pitying  eye.  Then 
his  mind  seemed  to  go  out  after  the  one 
friend  of  the  poor  and  neglected,  who  was 
always  to  be  trusted,  and  his  piercing  cry 
went  up,  "  Mr.  Hawley,  help  !  help  !  help  ! 
Mr.  Hawley  !  "  When  that  poor  boy  went 
down  like  lead  under  the  waters,  his  dying 
call  echoed  along  the  river  bank  as  "the 
blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  " 
on  the  one  man  in  Hartford  who  was 
known  to  be  anxious  to  deliver  "  the  poor 
that  cried,"  and  "  him  that  had  none  to 
help." 

"  Mishter  Hawley,"  I  heard  a  poor  Ger- 
man woman  say  in  broken  English  as  I 
visited  with  him  one  day, — "  Mishter  Haw- 
ley, I  vould  give  you  mine  blood,  I's  so 
thankvul."  And  she  meant  it,  as  you 
would  have  believed  had  you  heard  her  tell 
her  story  of  his  first  visit  to  her  dreary 
home,   where,   with   a   drunken    husband, 


David  Hawley  47 

she  was  struggling  to  keep  her  children 
from  starving,  and  of  his  bringing  bread 
and  cheering  words  to  her  in  her  distress. 
That  woman  well  illustrated  the  feelings 
of  very  many  towards  Mr.  Hawley, — illus- 
trated it  in  her  acts  as  well  as  in  her  words. 

When  Mr.  Hawley  had  moved  to  Syra- 
cuse, and  the  poor  woman  never  expected 
to  see  him  again,  and  had  no  thought  of 
ever  receiving  anything  more  from  him, 
she,  in  her  poverty,  longed  to  show  her 
gratitude  to  him,  and  she  did  it. 

She  bought  a  young  turkey  in  the  sum- 
mer, and  perseveringly  fattened  it  by 
dividing  the  scanty  store  of  her  household 
food ;  fed  it  when  every  ounce  it  ate  cost 
her  so  much  more  toil  to  feed  her  children ; 
neglected  neither  children  nor  turkey  until 
November  came.  Then,  on  Thanksgiving 
week,  she  killed  and  dressed  that  turkey, 
and  sent  it  by  express  to  Mr.  Hawley  in 
Syracuse.  And  she  and  her  children  were 
the  more  thankful  over  their  own  dry 
crusts  because  of  the  belief  that  Mr.  Haw- 


48  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ley  enjoyed  the  Thanksgiving  dinner  they 
had  provided  for  him. 

Ah !  there  was  a  meaning  in  that  moth- 
er's words, — "  Mishter  Hawley,  I  vould 
give  you  mine  blood,  I's  so  thankvul." 
Who  shall  say  that  Father  Hawley  did  not 
live  and  die  a  rich  man,  with  such  a  wealth 
of  love  for  his  possession  ! 

LONGING    FOR    THE    GREAT    DAY. 

It  is,  in  every  aspect,  a  good  thing  to 
have  representatives  and  illustrations  of 
pure  and  undefiled  religion  in  a  commu- 
nity. It  honors  God,  it  helps  the  poor,  it 
comforts  the  sorrowing,  it  tends  to  lighten 
the  burden  on  every  shoulder.  Father 
Hawley  was  unmistakably  such  a  represen- 
tative and  illustration  in  the  Hartford  com- 
munity ;  for  it  is  not  more  true  that  he 
visited  "  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their 
affliction  "  than  that  he  kept  himself  "  un- 
spotted from  the  world."  He  was  an 
upright  man,  a  godly  man.  Those  who 
knew  him  best  realized  this.     His  daily  life 


David  Hawley  49 

was  "  an  example  of  the  believers."  Even 
in  his  heart  of  hearts,  with  all  his  con- 
sciousness of  a  need  of  forgiveness  and 
salvation,  he  could  say  unfeignedly, "  Lord, 
thou  knowest  all  things ;  thou  knowest 
that  I  love  thee." 

I  shall  never  forget  an  incidental  illus- 
tration of  this  truth,  given  by  him  some 
years  ago.  I  preached,  in  the  Asylum  Hill 
Church  in  Hartford,  a  sermon  on  the  sure 
uncovering  of  character, — the  certainty  that, 
sooner  or  later,  a  man's  true  character  will 
be  known  to  the  world ;  that  "  there  is 
nothing  covered,  that  shall  not  be  revealed  ; 
and  hid,  that  shall  not  be  known."  The 
sermon  closed  with  a  reference  to  the  gen- 
eral judgment,  and  the  suggestion  that 
then,  if  not  before,  all  will  be  known  of 
every  man's  heart.  This  seemed  to  me  a 
thought  from  which  almost  any  man  would 
shrink.  But  Father  Hawley,  who  heard 
the  sermon,  said  to  me  pleasantly  the  next 
day,  as  we  met  on  the  street : 

"  I  tell   you,  Brother  Trumbull,  there's 


50  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

great  comfort  in  that  truth  you  brought 
out.  Sooner  or  later  we  shall  be  under- 
stood. People  may  doubt  us  now,  and 
ascribe  wrong  motives  to  us,  may  say  we 
are  doing  this  wrong  thing  or  that,  but  the 
Judgment  Day  will  bring  it  out  all  straight. 
Then  they'll  see  us  as  we  are.  I  tell  you 
there's  comfort  in  that  thought." 

What  a  disclosure,  that,  of  Father  Haw- 
ley's  inner  self !  When  a  man  is  looking 
forward  with  longings  to  the  Day  of  Judg- 
ment, so  that  he  may  be  known  as  he  is, 
there  is  not  much  in  his  character  that  he 
ought  to  shrink  from  having  uncovered. 

HIS    KIND    INTEREST    IN    ME. 

It  was  just  twenty-four  years  before  the 
day  when  I  preached  Father  Hawley's  fune- 
ral sermon  that  I,  as  a  young  convert  with 
a  burning  desire  to  show  my  love  for  my 
newly  confessed  Saviour,  found  my  way 
down  to  the  Morgan  Street  mission  school, 
and  beean  work  there  as  a  teacher,  under 
his  direction. 


David  Hawley  5 1 

For  years  I  worked  with  Father  Haw- 
ley, and  learned  from  him.  I  came  to 
know  him,  to  love  him,  and  to  honor  him. 
Father  Hawley,  on  the  other  hand,  had  a 
kindly  interest  in  me,  and  early  made  up 
his  mind  that  I  ought  to  be  in  the  work  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  and  this  long  before 
I  ever  thought  of  it  as  my  special  mission. 
To  this  end,  therefore,  he  looked  and 
prayed. 

At  one  time  he  said  to  me  earnestly, 
using  a  forceful  figure  out  of  his  farmer 
experience,  "  Brother  Trumbull,  I  hope  the 
Lord  will  harrow  up  your  nest  as  often  as 
you  build  it  outside  of  his  field."  At  length, 
after  eleven  years  of  waiting,  he  heard  from 
his  home  in  Syracuse  that  I  was  to  be 
ordained  as  an  army  chaplain.  Without 
any  special  invitation,  and  at  his  own  ex- 
pense, he  came  to  Hartford  to  see  with  his 
own  eyes  the  fulfilment  of  his  desire  for  me. 
As  I  stood  up  for  examination  before  the 
council,  in  the  Centre  Church  lecture  room, 
I  saw  him  on  a  back  seat,  watching  the 


52  My  Four  Religions  Teachers 

proceedings  with  tearful  eyes.  In  the  even- 
ing he  sat  an  interested  watcher,  and  lis- 
tened through  all  the  public  services  in  the 
church  until  he  saw  me  rise  as  an  ordained 
clergyman  to  pronounce  the  benediction. 
Then  his  joy  seemed  full. 

As  I  came  down  from  the  pulpit,  he  met 
me  at  the  foot  of  its  steps,  and,  taking  my 
hand,  he  said :  "  Brother  Trumbull,  I  am 
glad  to  see  this  hour,  and  now  I  have  come 
to  ask  a  ministerial  service  of  you.  I 
suppose  you  haven't  had  many  calls  in 
that  line  yet  [I  had  been  an  ordained 
clergyman  about  fifteen  minutes].  I  want 
you  to  promise  to  preach  my  funeral  ser- 
mon." As  he  saw  my  surprise,  he  added, 
"  I  mean  it,  Brother  Trumbull.  You  know 
me  and  my  work.  We've  been  together  a 
great  deal.  I  want  you  to  preach  my  fu- 
neral sermon."  I  answered,  "  Dear  Father 
Hawley,  I  hope  you'll  say  a  few  words 
at  my  funeral."  "  No,"  he  replied  ;  "  you'll 
outlive  me,  and  I  want  you  to  preach 
my  funeral  sermon."     As  he  pressed  this 


David  Hawley  53 

point,  I  could  not  do  less  than  give  him 
the  desired  promise. 

It  was  nearly  fourteen  years  before  the 
call  came  to  me  to  fulfil  that  promise. 
Again  and  again,  meantime,  Father  Haw- 
ley referred  to  his  request  and  my  promise 
of  then,  and  not  long  before  his  death  he 
informed  his  family  of  the  arrangement  he 
had  made  with  me.  Living  in  Philadel- 
phia at  the  time  of  his  death,  I  went  to  my 
old  Hartford  home  to  perform  gratefully 
my  long-before  promise  of  speaking  earnest 
words  of  him  after  his  death,  in  memory 
of  this  one  of  my  early  religious  teachers. 


ONE  WHO  SPOKE  TIMELY 

AND  POTENT  WORDS  : 

ELIAS  R.   BEADLE 

Dr.  Beadle  was,  in  his  young  manhood, 
a  missionary  in  Palestine  and  Syria.  He 
loved  his  Saviour,  and  in  Christ's  spirit  he 
loved  souls;  and  "beginning  at  Jerusalem  " 
he  was  ever  and  everywhere  at  work  for 
them.  It  seemed  to  me  that  his  winsome 
voice  was  influenced  in  its  very  tones  by 
his  speaking  as  a  missionary  in  the  Arabic 
language.  At  all  events,  his  spirit  as  a 
missionary  was  evidenced  in  the  way  he 
used  his  voice  whenever  he  spoke  in  his 
Saviour's  name;  and  all  who  heard  him 
felt  this  to  be  so. 

At  the  time  of  the  remarkable  ingathering 
of  young  people  to  Christ's  fold  in  the  city 
of  Hartford,  in  1852,  the  Pearl  Street  Con- 
gregational Church  was  organized  there, 
and  Dr.  Beadle  was  called  as  its  first  pas- 
tor. At  once  he  won  the  young  people's 
54 


Elias  R.  Beadle  55 

hearts,  and  older  persons  seemed  to  be  of 
the  same  mind.  As  I  had  been  brought  to 
Christ  at  the  same  time  with  many  of  his 
new  charge,  I  shared  their  enjoyment  of  his 
loving  ministry.  And  the  first  time  that  he 
had  an  opportunity  of  impressing  himself 
on  the  community  as  a  whole  I  became 
acquainted  with  his  peculiar  power. 

A    MEMORABLE    PUBLIC    FUNERAL. 

It  was  at  the  time  of  the  great  religious 
anniversaries  in  New  York  and  Philadel- 
phia, in  May,  1853.  The  Baptist  anniver- 
saries were  just  over,  in  Philadelphia.  On 
the  evening  of  May  5  the  American  Medi- 
cal Association  closed  its  sessions  in  New 
York  City  with  a  grand  banquet  in  Metro- 
politan Hall,  at  which  some  eight  hundred 
physicians  sat  down  to  feast  and  chat  to- 
gether. Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  read 
a  poem  to  them,  and  Drs.  Francis  and  Det- 
mold  and  Welford  and  Osgood  of  New 
York,  and  Professor  Knight  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, were  among  the  more  eminent  speak- 


56  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ers.  The  banquet  continued  until  midnight, 
but  quite  a  number  of  its  guests  were  up 
early  enough  the  next  morning,  of  Friday, 
May  6,  to  take  the  eight  o'clock  train  on 
the  New  Haven  Road  for  their  New  Eng- 
land homes. 

At  South  Norwalk,  Connecticut,  the  train 
dashed  into  an  open  draw  in  consequence 
of  the  criminal  carelessness  of  the  engineer, 
who  failed  to  look  for  the  signal  of  safety 
which  alone  could  justify  his  leaving  the 
station,  a  half-mile  below  the  bridge.  It 
was  a  frightful  disaster.  Nearly  fifty  per- 
sons were  killed  outright,  and  many  others 
were  injured  more  or  less  severely. 

Among  the  prominent  of  the  dead  were 
Dr.  Abel  L.  Pierson,  of  Salem,  Massachu- 
setts, a  distinguished  surgeon  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  ;  Dr.  Archibald  Welch,  of  Hart- 
ford, Connecticut ;  Drs.  Smith  and  Gray,  of 
Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  Dr.  Beach", 
of  Bridgeport,  Connecticut ;  the  Rev.  Oliver 
Burr,  agent  of  Antioch  College,  Ohio,  and 


Elias  R.  Beadle  57 

the  Rev.  John  H.  Luhrs,  of  Williamsburg, 
New  York.  Of  the  injured  there  were 
Professor  Tenbroeck,  a  daughter  of  the 
Rev.  Rufus  W.  Griswold,  and  the  Rev. 
J.  G.  Oncken,  a  Baptist  missionary  of  Ger- 
many, who,  with  a  number  of  clergymen, 
was  returning  from  Philadelphia.  Thomas 
Hicks,  the  artist,  and  a  number  of  well 
known  physicians,  were  of  those  who  es- 
caped unhurt.  Dr.  Smith,  of  Springfield, 
was  the  father  of  Professor  David  P.  Smith 
of  the  same  city,  an  eminent  volunteer  sur- 
geon in  the  Civil  War,  and  later  a  member 
of  the  faculty  of  the  Yale  Medical  School. 

Dr.  Archibald  Welch,  a  prominent  citi- 
zen and  a  "  beloved  physician,"  one  of 
the  victims,  was  the  first  of  the  members 
of  the  then  recently  formed  Pearl  Street 
Congregational  Church  to  be  taken  away 
by  death.  His  funeral  was  held  in  the  new 
church  edifice,  and  the  occasion  itself  was 
a  memorable  one. 

The  railroad  horror  had  impressed  the 
entire  community.     The  loss  of  Dr.  Welch 


58  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

was  felt  as  a  personal  one  in  a  very  wide 
circle.  At  the  funeral  service  the  large 
church  was  crowded  to  overflowing.  The 
members  of  the  church  wellnigh  filled  the 
body  of  the  house.  The  members  of  the 
Hartford  medical  faculty  were  present  in  a 
body,  as  also  were  the  officers  and  direc- 
tors of  the  New  Haven  Railroad  Company. 
In  the  pulpit  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Beadle 
were  the  Rev.  Drs.  Joel  Hawes  and  Mark 
Tucker,  former  pastors  of  Dr.  Welch.  The 
coffined  remains  of  the  dead  physician 
were  just  before  the  pulpit.  The  house 
was  draped  in  mourning.  The  entire  con- 
gregation was  under  the  influence  of  deep 
and  strong  feeling. 

After  the  singing  of  a  dirge,  and  other 
impressive  services  of  worship,  Dr.  Beadle 
arose  to  speak  the  first  direct  words  to  the 
great  congregation.  Looking  from  the 
pulpit  down  upon  the  face  of  the  dead,  he 
pointed  to  it  significantly  as  he  turned  his 
face  to  the  members  of  the  church,  and 
said  in  his  tender  and  musical  tones,  which 


Elias  R.  Beadle  59 

reached  every  ear  and  thrilled  every  heart 
in  that  entire  assembly :  "  Brethren,  there 
lies  the  first  of  our  dead  !  "  And  at  that 
utterance  he  paused  for  a  moment,  then 
broke  again  the  oppressive  stillness  with : 
"  The  first,  but  not  the  last.  Henceforth 
for  us  the  gates  of  death  stand  wide  open, 
day  and  night.  God  only  knows  who'll 
pass  through  next !  " 

A  more  effective  enforcement  of  a  timely 
and  important  lesson  from  a  great  and 
sudden  bereavement  I  have  never  known 
made  by  a  single  sentence  than  was  mani- 
fest when  those  words  of  Dr.  Beadle  sounded 
in  the  ears  of  those  who  listened  amid  the 
surroundings  and  in  the  circumstances  of 
that  hour.  Then  he  described  the  effect 
of  the  news  in  the  Hartford  streets  when 
the  first  intelligence  of  the  disaster  was 
flashed  over  the  wires,  and  men  were  in 
doubt  as  to  who  might  be  of  its  victims. 
He  told  of  the  crowding  toward  the  rail- 
road station  of  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren with  anxious  hearts,  when  the  first 


60         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

train  was  expected  from  Norvvalk  bringing 
home  the  injured  passengers  and  fuller 
lists  of  the  lost  and  the  saved. 

"  As  we  hurried  down  Asylum  Street,  we 
heard  the  shriek  of  your  locomotive  whistle 
at  the  curve  below,"  he  said,  turning  sud- 
denly to  the  railroad  directors.  And  then 
he  ejaculated  with  startling  effectiveness, 
"  Would  God  it  could  have  waked  our 
dead  !  " 

Dr.  Beadle's  words  of  that  day  re-echoed 
in  the  ears  of  all  his  hearers  while  they 
lived.  And  from  that  hour  he  was  a 
power  as  a  speaker  before  any  Hartford 
audience.  I  give  illustrations  of  his  power 
in  this  line,  as  better  evidencing  his  spirit 
and  method  than  any  description  of  which 
I  am  capable. 

GETTING  HOLD  OF  MISSION-SCHOOL  BOYS 

The  mission  school  in  Hartford  of  which 
I  have  spoken,  where  Father  Hawley  and 
I  worked  together,  and  where  I  received 
so    much    good,   was   what    the    English 


Elias  R.  Beadle  61 

would  call  a  "  ragged -school."  It  was 
made  up  of  boys  and  girls  of  the  very  low- 
est class  in  the  community,  out  of  homes 
of  squalor  and  of  vice  along  the  river-banks 
in  one  of  the  poorer  quarters  of  that  city. 
It  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  catch  and  hold 
the  attention  of  that  motley  assemblage. 
There  was  rarely  a  visitor  who  was  equal 
to  the  emergency.  But  Dr.  Beadle  won 
the  eyes  and  ears  of  all  who  were  there 
when  first  he  came  to  that  school. 

Standing  in  front  of  the  superintendent's 
desk,  before  the  school  closed  for  the  day, 
he  held  up  a  common  fresh-water  clam- 
shell, and  called  out: 

"  Boys,  what  is  that  ?  " 

"  A  clam-shell,"  cried  a  hundred  voices. 

"Yes,  it's  a  clam-shell, — a  rough,  coarse, 
clam-shell;  just  such  a  shell  as  you  could 
pick  up  any  day  by  the  bank  of  the  river, 
or  back  in  the  country  by  a  brook  in  the 
woods." 

Then,  turning  the  shell  quickly  in  his 
hand,  he  showed  the  other  valve,  the  out- 


62  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

side  of  which  had  been  beautifully  pol- 
ished, its  iridescent  colors  reflecting  the 
light  attractively. 

"  And  what  is  that,  boys  ?  "  he  said. 

"  That's  a  clam-shell,  too,"  was  the  answer. 

"  Yes ;  but  see  how  much  prettier  this 
side  is.     What  makes  the  difference  ?  " 

"  It's  been  rubbed  down,"  said  one. 

"  It's  been  smoothed  off, "  said  another. 

"  It's  been  polished  up,"  said  a  third. 

"  Yes,  that's  it.  And,  boys,  do  you  know 
that's  just  what  we  are  trying  to  do  with 
you  in  this  Sunday-school  ?  We've  brought 
some  of  you  in  here  as  rough  as  the  other 
side  of  the  clam-shell ;  and  now  we  are 
trying  to  rub  you  down,  to  smooth  you 
off,  to  polish  you  up,  so  that  you'll  shine 
like  this  side  of  the  shell.  This  polishing 
business  is  hard  work,  boys,  and  it  takes 
time  ;  but  it  pays." 

Then  Dr.  Beadle  pressed  home  the  need 
of  soul-polishing  in  words  which  were 
never  forgotten  in  that  room.  He  was 
thenceforward    known   by   those   boys   as 


Elias  R.  Beadle  63 

"  the  clam-shell  man ;  "  and  they  always 
gave  him  a  hearty  welcome  in  their  school- 
room, or  as  they  met  him  from  time  to  time 
in  the  street.  Many  of  them  were  more 
willing  to  be  rubbed  down  and  smoothed 
off  in  consequence  of  his  suggestive  words 
of  then  and  later ;  and  some  of  them  came 
finally  to  have  a  character  which  reflected 
beautifully  the  rays  of  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness. There  were  boys  from  that  mis- 
sion school  to  meet  Dr.  Beadle  in  heaven 
as  he  went  home  to  glory ;  and  others  of 
them  are  still  living  as  polished  shafts  in 
God's  earthly  temple, — "  polished  after  the 
similitude  of  a  palace." 

TENDER  WORDS  OF  PARTING 

"  Father  Hawley,"  of  whom  I  have  said 
so  much  as  my  co-worker,  and  from  whom 
I  learned  so  many  things,  was,  as  I  have 
shown,  a  man  greatly  beloved.  Dr.  Beadle 
worked  with  him,  and  gave  him  help  and 
cheer  in  his  work.  By  and  by  the  city 
missionary  was  called  to  Syracuse,  and  as 


64         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

he  was  leaving  for  his  new  field  of  labor 
some  of  his  many  friends  presented  to  him 
a  silver  water-pitcher  as  a  token  of  their 
regard.  Dr.  Beadle  made  the  presentation. 
Speaking  warmly  of  the  loving  labors  of 
Father  Hawley  in  Hartford,  and  of  the 
hearts  which  would  be  heavy  because  of 
his  absence  from  them,  he  said,  as  he  held 
in  his  hand  the  parting  gift : 

"  And  when  your  own  heart  is  heavy 
with  the  sorrows  of  others,  and  your 
thoughts  turn  back  to  those  whom  you 
have  loved  and  who  love  you  here,  then 
may  this  pitcher  be  to  you  as  the  fabled 
mirror  which  brings  to  view  the  faces  of 
those  who  are  in  the  mind  of  the  looker. 
In  its  polished  surface  may  you  see  smil- 
ing upon  you  these  faces  which  are  now 
turned  to  yours  in  glad  affection;  and  back 
of  them  may  you  see  the  worn  and  pale 
faces  of  the  poor  and  the  sick  to  whom 
you  have  ministered  in  their  distress,  and 
the  outstretched  hands  which  you  have 
filled  in  the  hour  of  their  need. 


Elias  R.  Beadle  65 

"  And  even  as  the  sea-shell  retains  in  its 
inner  chambers  the  murmur  of  the  ocean 
from  which  it  is  far  removed,  so  may  this 
pitcher  bring  back  remembered  sounds  to 
you ;  and  as  you  put  your  ear  to  it  may 
you  hear  repeated  these  words  of  affection 
we  are  speaking  in  heartiness  to  you  to- 
night; and  may  you  hear  again  those  thanks 
of  the  friendless  whom  you  have  befriended, 
of  the  helpless  whom  you  have  helped, 
those  trembling  words  of  gratitude :  '  I 
was  an  hungered,  and  you  gave  me  meat : 
I  was  thirsty,  and  you  gave  me  drink :  I 
was  a  stranger,  and  you  took  me  in:  I  was 
sick,  and  you  visited  me :  I  was  in  prison, 
and  you  came  unto  me.' " 

The  memory  of  those  loving  words  gave 
encouragement  and  cheer  to  the  untiring 
missionary  in  many  a  weary  hour  there- 
after ;  and  more  sorrowing  hearts  were 
comforted  by  his  labors  because  of  his  help 
from  those  re-echoing  words.  And  thus 
with  many  another  to  whom  that  man  of 
God  spoke. 


66         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

A    COLLEGE    COMMENCEMENT    DINNER 

In  the  gatherings  of  the  most  cultured 
Dr.  Beadle  was  as  felicitous  as  in  the 
presence  of  the  commoner  classes.  On 
one  occasion  he  made  an  address  at  the 
close  of  the  Commencement  dinner  of 
Trinity  College.  He  was  known  to  but 
few  of  the  alumni  present.  There  was 
no  expectation  aroused  before  his  speech. 
Sitting  near  him,  and  knowing  him  as  well 
as  I  did,  I  said  confidentially  to  an  Epis- 
copal clergyman  by  my  side,  "  Now  you'll 
see  the  starch  taken  out  of  white  cravats." 
And  we  saw  it. 

Dr.  Beadle  had  then  been  passing  some 
months  in  the  West  Indies  for  his  health, 
and  during  that  time  he  had  been  quite  ill. 
Referring  to  his  recent  life  in  the  tropics, 
he  said :  "  No  natural  object  in  that  arid 
region  had  more  attraction  to  me  than  the 
stately  palm-tree,  with  its  graceful  form  and 
its  refreshing  shade.  And  the  manner  of 
its  growth  is  recalled  to  me  as  I  see  these 


Elias  R.  Beadle  67 

successive  college  classes,  in  their  represen- 
tatives here  to-day.  Out  of  the  heart  of 
the  palm-tree  there  comes  a  cluster  of 
young  leaves — like  the  graduating  class 
of  to-day — standing  together  for  a  time 
above  all  about  them,  and  then  separating 
without  losing  all  connection  with  the 
parent  stock,  to  spread  into  an  encircling 
frieze,  which  is  to  be  covered  in  turn  by 
the  next  unfolding  cluster  from  above; 
and  so  the  growth  of  the  tree,  like  that  of 
the  college,  is  marked  by  the  successive 
courses  of  unfolded  leaves,  the  younger 
ones  seeming  to  stretch  themselves  over 
the  others  to  shield  them  from  the  sun,  lest 
they  should  wither  and  fall  too  soon. 

"  O,  how  grateful  was  the  shade  of  the 
palm-tree  to  one  who  was  weary,  as  I 
was  in  that  dry  and  thirsty  land !  But 
dearer  far  to  me,  my  friends,  than  all  else 
which  I  came  to  enjoy  in  the  tropics,  was 
the  shelter  of  a  tree  which  I  there  found 
planted  by  the  rivers  of  living  water, 
which  had  been  started  into  its  beautiful 


68         My  Fo7ir  Religions  Teachers 

growth  under  the  shadow  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege walls." 

By  this  time  the  college  alumni  were 
aroused,  and  they  listened  with  bated 
breath  to  the  musical  flow  of  the  words 
that  followed.  "  It  was  while  I  lay  on  a 
bed  of  sickness,  far  from  home  and  friends, 
seemingly  called  to  die  uncared  for  and 
alone,  that  there  came  to  my  bedside  one 
of  God's  dear  children,  a  brother  in  Christ, 
to  look  sympathy  into  my  eyes,  to  speak 
words  of  comfort  to  my  heavy  ears,  to 
fan  my  fevered  brow,  and  to  mingle  his 
thoughts  with  mine,  until  as  we  held  sweet 
converse  together  in  Christ  Jesus  I  came 
to  love  him  as  if  we  had  been  born  of  the 
same  mother,  and  nourished  at  the  same 
breast.  His  fellowship  and  his  prayers 
gave  me  new  comfort  and  new  life;  and 
now,  as  I  stand  here  before  the  alumni  of 
his  Alma  Mater,  I  say  with  all  my  heart, 
God  bless  John  Du  Bois,  of  the  class  of 
1854." 
The  effect  of  this  climax  was  irresistible. 


Elias  R.  Beadle  69 

The  classmates  of  Du  Bois  led  in  such 
demonstrative  applause  that,  as  the  other 
classes  joined  in  with  the  cheers  and  the 
table-pounding  which  resounded  for  several 
minutes  after  Dr.  Beadle  had  closed  his 
address,  glasses  and  crockery  were  literally 
shattered  into  fragments  up  and  down  the 
table. 

And  these  are  but  a  few  illustrations  out 
of  a  multitude  which  might  be  given  to 
show  the  power  and  impressiveness  of  the 
words  which  were  long  ago  uttered  by  one 
who  "  being  dead,  yet  speaketh." 


GOODNESS  AND  GREATNESS 

AMONG  ALL  :    HORACE 

BUSHNELL 

All  who  know  anything  of  greatness 
know  about  and  honor  Horace  Bushnell. 
As  the  years  go  on  his  name  and  fame 
grow,  and  it  is  more  and  more  manifest  to 
the  world  that  his  is 

"  One  of  the  few,  the  immortal  names, 
That  were  not  born  to  die." 

His  greatness  all  know,  but  his  exceeding 
goodness  and  his  rare  lovableness  could  be 
realized  only  by  those  who  were  privileged 
to  know  him  intimately,  and  for  whose 
welfare  and  training  he  had  a  generous 
sense  of  kind  responsibility. 

PERCEIVING   THE    BEST    IN    OTHERS 

One  indication  of  greatness  is  the  readi- 
ness of  the  great  man  to  perceive  undis- 
closed   possibilities    in  the    ordinary   man. 
A  street  boy,  with  a  piece  of  smoked  glass, 
70 


^HR^e   ■  ! 

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ffl^Hf 

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■M^s          Jl 

cy^^^td^  (^^L^^^^y 

Horace  Bushnell  ji 

can  see  the  spots  on  the  noonday  sun.  It 
takes  the  keen-eyed  scientist  with  his  spec- 
troscope to  discern  the  brighter  colors  of 
every  ray  of  the  sun  in  its  course.  Simi- 
larly, every  preacher  can  perceive  the  de- 
fects in  the  sayings  and  doings  of  a  young 
man  just  beginning  to  work  for  his  Master. 
But  only  the  superior  lover  of  Christ  and  of 
his  fellows  can  recognize  in  a  young  worker 
indications  of  promise  that  are  worthy  of 
cultivation  and  development.  And  there- 
fore it  is  that  such  a  man  as  Horace  Bush- 
nell incidentally  does  so  much  in  bringing 
out  and  bringing  up  men  whom  a  lesser 
man  would  never  have  deemed  worthy  of 
special  notice  and  effort  at  training. 

As  illustrative  of  this,  on  one  occasion  I 
was  with  him  when  he  listened  to  a  young 
clergyman  who  was  fresh  from  the  theo- 
logical seminary.  As  usual,  Dr.  Bushnell 
was  looking  for  the  best  things  rather  than 
the  poorer,  and  he  found  them.  After  the 
service  he  spoke  to  me  enthusiastically 
about  the  sermon. 


J2         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

"  Wasn't  that  fine  ?  When  he  announced 
his  text  I  busied  myself  thinking  how  he 
would  treat  it.  I  was  greatly  pleased  with 
his  opening.  Then  I  tried  to  keep  ahead 
of  him  in  my  thoughts.  At  every  point  he 
was  up  to  the  best  I  could  think  of,  or 
better.  And  when  the  sermon  was  finished 
I  felt  like  throwing  my  arms  around  him 
and  kissing  him." 

No  smaller  man  than  Dr.  Bushnell  could 
have  seen  all  that  he  saw  in  that  young 
preacher's  sermon ;  but  it  was  in  such 
ways  that  his  pre-eminence  was  all  the 
time  showing  itself.  That  young  preacher 
afterwards  had  occasion  to  rejoice,  through 
all  his  maturer  life,  in  the  interest  shown 
in  him  in  his  earlier  years  by  good  Dr. 
Bushnell,  whom  all  the  world  knew  to  be 
great.  And  this  was  only  one  young  man 
among  many  who  were  thus  favored  and 
blessed. 

As  almost  from  the  beginning  of  my 
Christian  life  I  was  under  the  ceaseless 
influence,  and  had  the  matchless  inspira- 


Horace  Bushnell  73 

tion,  of  Dr.  Bushnell's  unequaled  person- 
ality during  all  the  later  years  of  his  royal 
life,  I  have  reason,  indeed,  to  count  him  as 
pre-eminently  one  of  my  personal  religious 
teachers.  Even  though  favored  of  God 
with  these  advantages  for,  and  inducements 
to,  well  doing  and  the  exercise  of  a  right 
spirit  in  God's  service,  I  have  failed  to  do 
the  work  I  should  have  done.  Yet,  un- 
satisfactory as  is  my  record,  I  should  have 
done  far  less  in  my  life  had  I  not  been  so 
stimulated,  instructed,  and  guided  by  this 
teacher,  this  teacher  of  teachers,  Horace 
Bushnell  the  peerless  one;  and  for  him 
and  his  gracious  favor  and  rare  patience 
and  loving  endeavors  I  thank  God  con- 
tinually. 

HIS    WAY    OF    VIEWING   AND    USING 
BIBLE    WORDS 

Perhaps  the  best  key  to  the  distinctive 
thinking  of  Dr.  Bushnell,  in  the  realm  of 
biblical  or  religious  truth,  is  to  be  found  in 
his  essay  entitled  "Our  Gospel  a  Gift  to  the 


74  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

Imagination."  It  is  to  be  found,  in  his 
completed  works,  in  the  volume  called 
"  Building  Eras,"  but  it  first  appeared  as  a 
contribution  to  "  Hours  at  Home."  It  is  a 
condensation  and  reshaping  of  the  ideas 
in  his  extended  "  Essay  on  Language,"  pre- 
fixed to  his  earlier  volume,  "  God  in 
Christ."  It  aims  to  show  that,  necessarily, 
the  truth  concerning  the  spiritual  and  the 
infinite  cannot  be  stated  in  precise  human 
language,  since  all  human  words  have  a 
human  origin  with  human  limitations. 
Such  words,  when  employed  to  convey 
truth  which  is  beyond  the  realm  of  sight 
and  sense,  have  their  main  value  in  sug- 
gesting, not  in  defining,  the  higher  mean- 
ing. This  essay  has  perhaps  done  more 
than  any  other  single  chapter  of  his  works 
to  enable  readers  to  appreciate  and  enter 
into  the  spirit  and  atmosphere  of  his  think- 
ing, and,  as  it  did  very  much  to  influence 
my  character  and  life  work,  I  want  to  tell 
something  of  it  just  here. 

When,  after  the  beginning  of  our  Civil 


Horace  Bushnell  75 

War,  I  unexpectedly  found  myself  in  the 
ranks  of  the  Christian  ministry  without 
any  previous  theological  training,  through 
the  call  to  an  army  chaplaincy,  Dr.  Bush- 
nell more  than  doubled  his  loving  en- 
deavors to  inspire  and  guide  me.  After 
my  return  from  the  war,  I  was  accustomed 
to  take  long  walks  with  him  in  the  suburbs 
of  the  city,  and  to  enjoy  the  privilege  of 
free  converse  and  discussion  about  matters 
in  which  I  most  needed  help. 

One  day,  in  the  early  part  of  1 869,  as  we 
walked,  he  asked,  in  his  frank  way,  what  I 
thought  of  a  sermon  I  had  heard  him 
preach  the  Sunday  before.  In  that  sermon 
he  had  incidentally  touched  on  the  work 
which  Jesus  Christ  wrought  for  our  salva- 
tion, and  in  so  doing  he  had  given  ex- 
pression to  his  peculiar  views  on  the 
Atonement.  These  views  had  jarred  on 
my  traditional  prejudices,  and  I  told  him 
so  with  entire  frankness.  At  that  time  I 
had  not  visited  the  East,  nor  gained  any 
familiarity  with  Oriental  forms  of  speech. 


j6         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

Like  many  others,  I  took  Bible  words  in 
dead  Western  literalness,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, I  saw  little  below  the  surface.  I 
closed  my  comments  on  Dr.  Bushnell's 
sermon  with  the  statement : 

"  You  know,  Doctor,  that  I  differ  with 
you  in  all  this." 

"  Trumbull,  you  don't  differ  with  me  in 
my  view  of  the  Atonement." 

"  Yes,  I  do,  Doctor." 

"  Well,  you  don't  hold  the  view  I  com- 
bat. You  don't  hold  the  slaughter-house 
theory  of  the  Atonement." 

"  Yes,"  I  said,  "  I  think  I  do.  I  believe 
that  '  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  .  .  .  cleans- 
eth  us  from  all  sin.' " 

"Well,  you  don't  hold  the  commercial 
view." 

"  Yes,  I  think  I  do.  I  believe  that  we 
are  '  bought  with  a  price.'  " 

"  Well,  you  don't  hold  these  views  in  the 
sense  in  which  I  am  speaking  of  them," 
said  the  good  Doctor,  kindly.  Then  he 
added : 


Horace  Bushnell  77 

"  Trumbull,  I've  just  sent  an  article  to 
'Hours  at  Home'  that'll  soon  be  out.  I 
want  you  to  read  it.  It  covers  all  this 
very  ground." 

"  I  shall  be  glad  to  read  it,"  I  said  sin- 
cerely, without  anticipating  any  marked 
effect  from  its  reading,  if  it  were  on  this 
particular  theme. 

Some  weeks  after,  as  I  again  walked 
with  the  Doctor,  he  asked  me : 

"  Have  you  read  my  article  yet,  Trum 
bull?" 

"  No,  I  haven't,"  I  replied, 

"  Well,  I  want  you  to." 

"  I  mean  to,  Doctor." 

A  fortnight  after,  the  Doctor  asked  me 
again  : 

"  Trumbull,  have  you  read  my  article  in 
'  Hours  at  Home  '  ?  " 

When  I  again  answered  in  the  negative, 
the  good  Doctor  stopped,  stood  before  me, 
and,  taking  hold  of  me  with  both  hands, 
said : 

"  Trumbull,  I  want  you  to  read  that.     I 


J%         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ask  you  to  read  it  for  my  sake.  Now, 
promise  me  you  will." 

"  I  will,  Doctor,"  I  said  earnestly.  "  I'll 
stop,  as  I  go  home,  and  get  the  magazine, 
and  then  read  the  article  at  once." 

The  next  time  I  met  the  Doctor,  he  asked  : 

"  Have  you  read  my  article  yet  ?  " 

"  Well,"  I  answered  slowly,  "  I've  read  it 
twice  over,  and  have  thought  a  good  deal 
about  it ;  but  I  want  to  read  it  again,  and 
think  more  over  it,  before  I  decide  what  I 
do  think  of  it." 

The  Doctor's  face  brightened,  his  keen 
eyes  twinkled,  his  lips  broke  into  a  smile, 
he  stuck  out  his  thumb  and  poked  it  into 
my  side,  as  he  said,  with  a  peculiar  tone  of 
triumph  in  his  voice: 

"  Ah  !  the  pizen's  workin'." 

And  it  was — in  the  sense  in  which  he 
meant  that !  That  essay  rent  the  veil  from 
before  my  mind.  I  had  lost  nothing.  I 
had  gained  much.  I  could  never  again 
be  a  blind  child,  in  the  presence  of  that 
which  the  noonday  sun  brought  to  light. 


Horace  Bushnell  79 

As  I  talked  of  that  truth  afterward  with 
the  Doctor,  I  spoke  of  the  growing  gain  it 
was  to  me  since  I  comprehended  its  real 
significance. 

"  Yes,"  he  said,  "  it  grows  on  me  all  the 
time.  I  see  now  the  truth  there  is  in  many 
forms  I  once  vigorously  opposed.  I  could 
stand  now  a  pretty  good  examination  in 
the  Westminster  Catechism."  Then,  after 
a  pause,  he  added,  "  Or  in  almost  any 
other  catechism." 

HIS    PART    IN    OUR    CIVIL   WAR 

Although  Dr.  Bushnell  believed  and 
taught  that  Bible  words  are  utterly  inade- 
quate to  the  declaring  of  spiritual  and  infi- 
nite truths  except  by  suggestion,  he  prized 
and  could  most  forcibly  use  the  words  of 
the  Bible  at  times  when  they  were  pecu- 
liarly needed,  and  when  he  would  show 
that  a  truth  he  pressed  had  the  Divine 
sanction.  In  this  he  exhibited  rare  power, 
as  illustrated  in  his  many  felicitous  sermon 
texts,  and  also  in  his  public  prayers. 


80         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

In  the  second  year  of  our  Civil  War, 
President  Lincoln  on  one  occasion  asked 
that  the  loyal  citizens  of  the  country  should 
assemble  on  a  given  Sunday  in  their  re- 
spective places  of  worship,  at  the  close  of 
the  usual  forenoon  service,  and  unite  in 
prayer  for  the  country  in  its  peril.  Dr. 
Bushnell  preached  that  Sunday  in  the 
Pearl  Street  Congregational  Church.  At 
the  close  of  the  forenoon  service,  he  came 
down  from  the  pulpit,  and  took  his  posi- 
tion, as  the  leader  of  the  proposed  meeting. 
His  opening  words  of  prayer  thrilled  us  all : 

"  O  God,  we  thank  thee  for  teaching  our 
hands  to  war  and  our  fingers  to  fight. 
Thou  hast  taught  us  that  the  magistrate 
beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain, — and  if  he 
doesn't  bear  it  in  vain,  he  must  use  it,  and 
if  he  can't  use  it  alone,  we  must  help  him 
use  it." 

Here  was  the  justification  for  our  war  in 
defense  of  national  authority,  backed  by 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  shown  in 
no  strained  use  of  Scripture,  but  in  evident 


Horace  Bushnell  8 1 

accord  with  both  its  letter  and  its  spirit. 
Then  he  went  on  to  plead  earnestly  for 
God's  help  to  those  who  had  risen  up  to 
aid  the  God-given  powers  in  this  crisis- 
hour  of  the  nation's  struggle.  All  who 
listened  to  that  prayer  went  out  from  that 
place  in  a  new  spirit  of  consecration  and 
faith  for  the  work  which  God  had  laid  on 
them  to  do. 

Dr.  Bushnell  had  his  full  part  in  prepar- 
ing the  public  mind  for  the  struggle  of 
that  national  conflict.  He  early  saw  the 
issue  approaching,  and  he  guided  his  peo- 
ple, and  many  beyond  them,  as  it  cul- 
minated in  actual  warfare.  His  sermon, 
published  at  a  time  while  Northern  men 
were  hesitating  whether  to  yield  or  to  stand 
firm,  from  the  text,  "  Shall  iron  break  the 
northern  iron  and  the  steel?"  had  its  posi- 
tive influence  in  convincing  them  of  their 
duty  of  the  hour.  When  the  disaster  of 
the  first  Bull  Run  staggered  their  confi- 
dence, his  voice  rang  out  in  clarion  tones, 
"  If  thou  faint  in  the  day  of  adversity,  thy 


82  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

strength  is  small," — and  men  whom  he 
reached  regained  their  poise. 

From  his  congregation  there  went  out 
scores  of  the  bravest  and  the  best  young 
men  to  bear  their  full  part  in  the  mighty 
conflict,  and  they  felt  his  impress  in  their 
going  and  in  their  doing.  He  kept  in 
touch  with  them  all  along.  Meeting  one 
of  his  active  church-members,  who  had 
entered  the  army  as  lieutenant  in  a  light 
battery,  and  was  at  home  on  a  brief  leave, 
he  accosted  him  cheerily  with : 

"  Glad  to  see  you,  Metcalf.  Killed  any- 
body yet  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  as  I  can  say  that  I  have." 

"  Time  you  had.  That's  what  you  went 
out  for." 

When  that  lieutenant  fell,  mortally 
wounded,  in  the  battle  of  Drewry's  Bluff, 
after  doing  thoroughly  what  he  was  out 
for,  a  warm-hearted  surgeon  said  to  him, 
as  he  examined  the  wound  : 

"  Lieutenant,  you've  got  to  die  ;  are  you 
ready  ?  " 


Horace  Bushnell  83 

"  Oh,  yes,  indeed,  Doctor !  if  I  hadn't 
been,  I  shouldn't  have  been  here,"  and  the 
lieutenant  opened  his  eyes  to  look  pleas- 
antly on  the  surgeon,  and  then  restfully 
closed  them  to  earth. 

When  I  reported  this  to  good  Dr.  Bush- 
nell, it  seemed  to  thrill  him  with  sympa- 
thetic pride,  as  if  he  realized  that  another 
of  his  children  in  the  faith  had  lived  to  a 
purpose  and  died  to  a  purpose. 

When,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  Yale  Col- 
lege, his  Alma  Mater,  honored  her  many 
soldier  sons  by  a  commemorative  celebra- 
tion, Dr.  Bushnell  was  invited  to  deliver 
the  oration.  It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was 
never  grander  than  on  that  occasion.  The 
armies  were  not  yet  disbanded,  but  from 
many  fields  and  posts  officers  and  men 
came  to  share  in  the  impressive  services  of 
that  day.  Starred  names  which  the  whole 
nation  delighted  to  honor  were  there,  and 
officers  of  every  grade  in  the  army  and  the 
navy,  together  with  the  host  of  common 
soldiers  of  uncommon   worth,  and   digni- 


84         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

taries  of  church  and  state,  besides  the  or- 
dinary college  assembly,  made  up  an 
inspiring  audience. 

The  Doctor  was  himself  the  central  fig- 
ure of  the  hour,  not  merely  because  of  his 
position,  but  by  his  character  and  mental 
and  moral  power.  He  stood  there  like  an 
inspired  prophet  of  old  to  give  his  message 
and  to  bear  his  witness.  He  had,  in  one 
sense,  been  in  more  battles  than  any  veteran 
before  him.  His  face  and  figure  showed 
scars  that  came  of  conflicts  with  intellec- 
tual and  spiritual  giants.  And  in  his 
countenance  was  the  clear  light  of  assured 
triumph  in  faith.  All  present  looked  up  to 
him  with  admiration  and  reverence.  But 
the  temptation  to  speak  words  of  praise 
and  honor  to  the  heroes  before  him  had  no 
power  to  swerve  him  from  his  duty  of 
pointing  all  to  the  recognition  of  "  Our 
Obligations  to  the  Dead."  He  uplifted 
himself,  and  he  uplifted  his  hearers,  as  he 
pointed  away  from  the  noblest  of  the  living 
to  the  nobler  dead  who  had  died  for  them. 


Horace  Bushncll  85 

His  words  for  them  made  all  ready  to  give 
them  higher  honor. 

"  No,  no,  ye  living !  It  is  the  ammuni- 
tion spent  that  wins  the  battle,  not  the 
ammunition  brought  off  from  the  field. 
These  dead  are  the  spent  ammunition  of 
the  war,  and  theirs,  above  all,  is  the  vic- 
tory. Upon  what,  indeed,  turned  the  ques- 
tion of  the  war,  but  on  the  dead  that  could 
be  furnished ;  or,  what  is  in  no  wise  differ- 
ent, the  life  that  could  be  contributed  for 
that  kind  of  expenditure  ?  These  grim 
heroes,  therefore,  dead  and  dumb,  that 
have  strewed  so  many  fields  with  their 
bodies, — these  are  the  price  and  purchase- 
money  of  our  triumph.  A  great  many  of 
us  were  ready  to  live,  but  these  offered 
themselves,  in  a  sense,  to  die,  and  by  their 
cost  the  victory  is  won." 

GENEROUS  REGARD  FOR  VIEWS  OF  OTHERS 

There  was  a  charming  naturalness  and 
simplicity  in  the  ordinary  ways  of  Dr. 
Bushnell  with  reference  to  his  own  achieve- 


86         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ments  and  the  comments  on  them  by- 
others.  He  seemed  pleased  when  an  ap- 
preciative hearer  spoke  warmly  of  any- 
thing he  had  done  or  said.  For  a  time, 
during  the  later  years  of  his  pastorate,  he 
gave  the  afternoons  on  Sunday  to  a  congre- 
gational Bible-school  service,  with  a  com- 
mon theme  of  study  for  all  the  classes,  and 
at  the  close  an  address  from  himself  on  the 
theme  for  the  day.  One  afternoon  I  was 
present  when  the  subject  of  study  was  John 
the  Baptist.  In  that  fifteen  minutes'  clos- 
ing address  of  the  Doctor,  I  gained  more 
light  on  the  work  and  mission  of  John  the 
Baptist,  and  his  place  with  reference  to  the 
old  dispensation  and  the  new,  than  I  had 
ever  gained  from  all  the  commentaries,  or 
than  has  come  to  me  since  from  all  other 
sources.  As  I  thanked  the  Doctor  for  his 
fresh  exposition,  he  said,  with  child-like 
enthusiasm  in  the  subject,  which  had  evi- 
dently deeply  interested  him : 

"  Don't  you   think   I   met  the  common 
difficulties  in  John's  case  pretty  well  ?     It 


Horace  Bushnell  87 

seems  to  me  that  that's  the  way  to  place 
him." 

I  heard  Bushnell  preach  his  great  ser- 
mon on  "Building  Eras  in  Religion"  at 
the  dedication  of  the  Park  Church,  occu- 
pied by  his  old  charge.  I  had  never  seen 
him  when  he  so  soared  above  the  plane  of 
common  humanity,  and  so  reveled  in  the 
visions  of  the  far  future  open  to  his  pro- 
phetic gaze,  as  while  he  treated  Ezekiel's 
glowing  vision  of  the  restored  temple  and 
its  spiritual  teachings.  It  was  two  weeks 
after  that  evening  that  I  first  had  the  op- 
portunity of  telling  him  of  my  enthusiasm 

about  that  sermon. 

"Well,  /  thought   that   sermon   was  a 

p-ood  one.    It  took  hold  of  me.    But  some- 

how  it  didn't  seem  to  impress  others  so. 

Hardly  any  one  has  spoken  to  me  about 

it." 

When  I  heard  another  of  his  great  ser- 
mons, I  was  particularly  pleased  with  its 
opening  sentences,  and  they  fastened  them- 
selves  in   my  memory.     Two  years    later 


88  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

that  sermon,  with  others,  appeared  in  a 
new  volume.  Its  vigorous  opening  was 
toned  down  to  a  less  striking  beginning. 
Meeting  the  Doctor,  I  told  him  that  I 
missed  the  sentences  with  which  he  began 
when  he  preached  it,  and  then  I  repeated 
them  to  him. 

"  So  you  liked  that, — did  you  ?  So  did 
/,  but  Mrs.  Bushnell  made  me  change  it." 

Dr.  Bushnell  was  great  in  any  aspect 
you  viewed  him,  and  the  more  one  was 
with  him  the  more  one  felt  this.  One 
day,  as  I  was  walking  with  him,  and  he 
had  been  pouring  out  the  treasures  of  his 
rich  thoughts  for  my  benefit,  I  burst  out 
with : 

"  O  Doctor,  you  are  simply  grand  !  How 
good  it  is  to  be  with  you !  There's  no  one 
in  the  world  like  you? 

"Oh,  no!  Trumbull,  I  just  look  at  truth 
from  another  corner  of  the  room,  that's  all." 

But  who  like  him  could  find  that  corner  ? 
And  what  a  privilege  it  was  to  hear  him 
tell  what  he  had  seen  as  he  stood  there ! 


Horace  Bushnell  89 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  the  storm  of 
opposition  raised  against  Dr.  Bushnell,  in 
his  earlier  ministry,  by  representatives  of 
different  schools  of  theological  thought, 
was  rather  because  of  the  havoc  made  with 
their  pet  forms  of  dogma  by  his  attacks  on 
all  human  explanations  of  spiritual  truths 
as  necessarily  incomplete  and  partial,  than 
because  of  people's  belief  that  he  directly 
denied,  or  squarely  took  issue  with,  any 
biblical  declaration  of  a  truth,  vital  or  less 
important.  It  was  not  so  much  that  he 
was  felt  to  be  in  error,  as  that  he  evidently 
claimed  that  others  were  not  absolutely 
correct  in  their  statements  of  doctrine,  and 
therefore  they  felt  he  must  be  wrong. 

When  he  stated  and  applied  a  great  truth 
in  the  realm  of  character  or  action  or  provi- 
dence, he  quickened  thought  and  carried 
conviction.  Even  men  who  were  preju- 
diced against  him  as  "  heretical  "  or  "  un- 
sound "  theologically,  were  ready  to  admit 
the  exceptional  value  of  his  thinking  and 
teaching    in    these    other    realms.     It  was 


90         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

only  when  he  opened  fire  on  the  earth- 
works of  the  defenders  of  a  formal  system 
of  doctrine  that  he  had  to  meet  the  return 
fire  from  enemies  all  along  the  line, — front, 
flank,  and  rear. 

His  book,  "The  Vicarious  Sacrifice," 
essayed  to  indicate  or  define  the  nature 
and  necessity  and  limits  of  the  "  Atone- 
ment," according  to  his  view  of  truth. 
This  book  was  violently  combated.  After 
a  while  he  supplemented,  and,  in  a  sense, 
modified,  this,  by  another  volume,  "  For- 
giveness and  Law."  This  was,  in  one 
sense,  an  illustration  of  his  ever-readiness 
to  revise  or  change  his  opinions  as  new 
light  broke  in  on  him.  In  another  sense, 
it  showed  that  not  even  he  could  employ 
human  language  to  so  define  truths  in  the 
realm  of  the  spiritual  and  the  infinite  as  to 
convey  them  to  the  human  mind  without  a 
possibility  of  misconception  or  error.  At 
the  best,  these  volumes  were  but  essays  in 
the  direction  of  the  limits  of  the  illimitable. 

When  Dr.  Bushnell  wrote  "  Forgiveness 


Horace  Bushnell  91 

and  Law/'  he  felt  that  it  was  a  decided  ad- 
vance on  his  earlier  volume,  "  The  Vicari- 
ous Sacrifice,"  and  he  believed  that  it  would 
be  generally  recognized  as  such.  It  was  a 
surprise  to  him  that  his  own  friends  did 
not  give  it  a  heartier  welcome.  Before  he 
published  it,  he  read  it  in  manuscript  to 
his  brethren  in  the  ministerial  association 
in  Hartford,  to  which  he  belonged,  in  order 
to  avail  himself  of  their  opinions  and  sug- 
gestions. He  was  evidently  desirous  that 
his  special  friends  should  be  present,  and 
he  took  pains  to  notify  several  of  them,  in 
advance,  of  this  wish.  They  gathered  in 
the  parlors  of  the  South  Congregational 
Church.  He  was  nearly  four  hours  in  its 
reading.  Then  all  in  turn  expressed  their 
views  on  it. 

Professor  Calvin  E.  Stowe,  one  of  the 
more  conservative  of  those  present,  led  off. 
He  said,  good-naturedly : 

"  The  Doctor's  gaining.  If  he  revises  a 
few  more  times,  he'll  be  pretty  near  the  truth." 

Then  he  showed  where  he  agreed  with 


92  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

Dr.  Bushnell  in  his  statements,  and  where 
he  disagreed. 

Dr.  Samuel  J.  Andrews,  author  of  "  The 
Life  of  our  Lord,"  commented  in  his  sweet 
spirit.  Dr.  Nathaniel  J.  Burton  spoke  out 
in  his  robust,  hearty,  appreciative  way.  Dr. 
E.  P.  Parker  and  Joseph  H.  Twichell,  while 
recognizing  the  good  in  this  as  in  all  things 
from  the  Doctor's  pen,  were  frank  to  say 
that  they  felt  he  would  gain  nothing  ma- 
terially by  its  publishing.  It  would  simply 
seem  to  indicate  a  wavering  on  his  part  as 
to  his  original  position.  It  would  in  no 
sense  satisfy  his  old  enemies,  and  would  be 
rather  a  confusion  to  his  friends.  And  so 
the  comments  went  around. 

It  was  evident  that  the  Doctor  was  sur- 
prised, if  not  indeed  disappointed,  at  the 
reception  his  work  had  met.  He  had  sup- 
posed that  these  friends,  at  least,  would 
think  more  of  it.  In  his  rejoinder  he 
spoke  of  the  principal  objections  raised, 
and  then  he  came  to  the  view  taken  by 
those  who  had  spoken  of  it  depreciatingly. 


Horace  Bushnell  93 

"  As  to  what  Parker  and  Twichell  say, — 
that  there's  nothing  in  it, — I  confess  I  can't 
understand.  It's  a  mystery  to  me, — a  great 
deal  more  of  a  mystery  than  the  Atone- 
ment." 

As  I  walked  away  from  that  conference 
with  Dr.  Bushnell,  I  spoke  to  him  of  my 
thought  about  his  claim  that  it  was  a 
necessity  in  God's  nature  to  make  a  sacri- 
fice for  his  sinning  children,  in  order  to  over- 
whelm the  new  barrier  of  their  sins  by  the 
added  floods  of  his  love.  I  said  it  seemed 
to  me  that  a  human  mother's  love  could 
go  out  to  a  disobedient  child  at  the  fullest, 
without  any  added  personal  sacrifice  on 
her  part  as  a  necessity  of  her  nature,  and  I 
did  not  see  why  the  Divine  Father  might 
not  have  similar  power  of  love. 

"  O  Trumbull !  I'm  not  speaking  of  the 
cow-and-calf  love.  I'm  taking  the  moral 
element  of  the  love  into  account, — the  love 
which  God  feels  and  which  is  God-like." 

Then,  having  thus  sharply  drawn  this 
line  between  love  and  love,  between  the 


94         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

mere  love  of  the  cow  and  calf  and  the  love 
which  God  is,  he  went  on  to  explain  more 
fully  its  bearing  on  the  theme  of  his  new 
volume.  Having  reached  his  home,  after 
parting  with  me,  he  wrote  out  more  carefully 
his  views,  that  he  might  help  me  to  a  better 
understanding  of  it  as  it  lay  in  his  mind. 

Some  time  after  this,  as  we  walked  to- 
gether, I  ventured  to  say  to  the  Doctor  with 
reference  to  this  whole  matter,  as  showing 
why  some  of  those  who  looked  to  him 
most  admiringly  were  unable  to  accept 
fully  his  explanations  of  the  inexplicable  : 

"  You  must  remember,  Doctor,  that  you 
have  taught  us  that  these  greatest  truths 
cannot  be  expressed  in  human  language.  / 
was  slow  to  learn  this,  but  at  last  you  got  it 
into  even  me,  through  your  '  Our  Gospel  a 
Gift  to  the  Imagination.'  Then  having  con- 
vinced us  of  the  utter  futility  of  such  an  at- 
tempt, you  undertake  it  yourself,  and  you 
wonder  that  we  do  not  at  once  accept  as 
final  your  definitions  of  forgiveness  and 
salvation,  and  their  relations  to  law." 


Horace  BusJincll  95 

Then  I  added :  "  You  know,  Doctor,  how 
great  I  think  you  are,  and  how  I  prize 
your  opinions,  and  I  assure  you  I  am 
ready  to  admit  that  when  we  get  beyond 
the  realm  of  the  finite  I  shall  probably  see 
that  you  have  been  nearer  right  in  your 
thoughts  and  ideas  than  anybody  else. 
But  as  we  are,  here  and  now,  I  don't  think 
that  God  intends  me  to  feel  that  his  truth 
on  these  subjects  is  disclosed  and  defined 
by  your  explanations  of  them." 

I  mention  these  venturesome  remarks  of 
mine  as  preliminary  to  an  incident  showing 
Dr.  Bushnell's  wonderful  consideration  of 
the  views  and  prejudices  of  those  whom  he 
was  influencing.  Although  of  a  positive 
nature,  he  was  in  no  sense  bigoted  or  dog- 
matic, and  he  could  not  properly  be  called 
opinionated.  While  he  held  his  opinions 
firmly,  he  was  always  ready  to  consider 
the  views  of  another,  and  to  revise  or 
modify  his  own,  as  God  gave  him  more 
light.  It  was  ever  true  of  him,  as  he  said 
of  the  venerable  Dr.  Noah  Porter  of  Farm- 


96         My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ington  after  his  death,  "  He  kept  his  win- 
dows open  to  the  last,  willing  to  know  any- 
thing possible  to  be  known." 

In  those  days,  while  living  in  Hartford,  I 
was  absent  from  home  much  of  the  time,  in 
the  discharge  of  my  Sunday-school  duties. 
Only  now  and  then  could  I  have  a  Sunday 
there.  If,  when  I  was  to  be  in  town  over 
Sunday,  I  saw  by  the  Saturday's  papers 
that  Dr.  Bushnell  was  to  preach  in  one  of 
the  churches,  I  was  sure  to  go  and  hear 
him.  One  Sunday  I  heard  him  preach,  at 
the  South  Church,  his  sermon  on  "  The 
Coronation  of  the  Lamb,"  afterwards  in- 
cluded in  his  volume,  "  Sermons  on  Living 
Subjects."  While  I  was  uplifted  by  it  as  a 
whole,  I  could  not  give  assent  to  certain  in- 
cidental references  to  his  peculiar  views  of 
sacrifice  and  atonement,  and  I  frankly  told 
him  so  as  we  talked  it  over  subsequently. 

Several  weeks  later,  I  had  another  Sun- 
day in  Hartford.  Seeing  that  Dr.  Bushnell 
was  to  preach  at  the  Asylum  Hill  Church, 
I  gladly  went  there.     I  saw  by  the  selected 


Horace  Bushnell  97 

hymns  and  Scripture  readings  that  he  was 
to  preach  that  same  sermon,  and  I  was 
gratified  that  I  could  hear  it  again.  After 
service,  I  met  Dr.  Philip  Schaff  in  the 
house,  and  we  two  joined  Dr.  Bushnell  and 
walked  down  the  hill  with  him.  Presently 
Dr.  Bushnell  said : 

"  Trumbull,  I  was  disturbed  when  I  saw 
you  come  in  this  morning." 

"  How  so  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  Why,  I  said,  '  There's  Trumbull.  He's 
come  to  hear  me  preach,  and  this  is  the 
very  sermon  I  preached  the  last  time  he 
heard  me.'  " 

"Well,  Doctor,  when  I  saw  by  the 
hymns  that  you  were  to  preach  that  ser- 
mon, I  was  more  than  glad,  for  I  think  I 
can  always  get  more  out  of  one  of  your 
sermons  on  the  second  hearing  than  on 
the  first.  I  watched  this  one  with  especial 
care  this  morning,  and  I'll  tell  you  frankly 
that  it  didn't  seem  to  jar  on  me  this  time, 
at  the  points  I  talked  over  with  you,  as  it 
did  the  other  time." 


98  My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

"  I  think  quite  likely,  Trumbull.  They 
were  not  there.  After  that  talk  with  you, 
I  went  home  and  looked  that  sermon  over. 
I  said  to  myself,  '  I've  stuck  too  much  of 
Bushnell  into  this.  Those  things  are  not 
essential  here.  If  they  trouble  Trumbull, 
they  may  trouble  somebody  else.'  So  I 
struck  them  out." 

Bushnell  was  as  great  in  his  child-like 
openness  of  mind  as  in  the  giant  grasp  of 
his  mighty  intellect.  He  could  be  always 
teaching.  He  would  be  always  learning, 
— from  his  pupils  as  from  his  peers.  And 
in  such  ways  he  was  alike  winsome  and 
potent,  while  he  scattered  seed-thoughts 
broadcast,  and  as  he  gave  them  out  by 
handfuls  to  young  planters  or  older  ones. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  Dr.  Bushnell's 
loving  desire  and  persistent  endeavor  to 
lead  me  out  from  the  bondage  of  dead 
literalism,  in  which  I  was  bound,  into  the 
larger  liberty  of  God's  truth  as  beyond 
human  expression.  In  this  was  his  great- 
est work  for  me,  as  for  many  others.     But 


Horace  Bushnell  99 

he  did  his  work  for  me  in  little  things  as 
in  larger,  and  he  was  lovingly  doing  or 
endeavoring  to  do  all  the  time.  When  the 
Civil  War  was  over,  and  I  returned  from 
the  army  chaplaincy,  Dr.  Bushnell  seemed 
to  have  set  his  mind  on  having  me  in  the 
pastorate  in  some  place  where  I  could  do 
an  important  work  for  Christ  and  for  souls. 
In  several  instances  he  came  to  me  with 
invitations  from  prominent  churches,  east 
and  west,  which  would  have  been  tempting 
had  I  felt  I  had  a  right  to  accept  them. 
Of  course,  it  was  his  potent  words  with 
those  churches  that  had  secured  these  in- 
vitations, and  it  was  his  loving  and  gener- 
ous opinion  of  me  that  had  made  him 
speak  those  words ;  but  at  the  time  I  had 
the  invitation  as  pressed  by  him  to  con- 
sider seriously. 

Besides  being  in  doubt  as  to  whether  I 
should  be  able,  at  the  best,  to  fill  such  a 
place  and  do  such  a  work  as  his  generous 
estimate  had  secured  an  invitation  to,  I 
had  another  and  a  better  reason  for  declin- 


IOO        My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ing  it.  I  felt  that  God  had  called  me  to 
the  Sunday-school  work,  and  in  that  I 
must  remain  until  he  called  me  to  leave  it. 
The  question  was  not  what  my  friends,  or 
what  I,  thought  was  best,  but  what  God 
knew  to  be  the  place  where  he  would  have 
me.  As  the  years  passed  on,  however,  Dr. 
Bushnell  came  to  value  more  highly  the 
Sunday-school  and  its  work  in  comparison 
with  other  agencies  in  God's  kingdom. 
When,  at  my  urgent  request,  he  consented 
to  preach  a  sermon  at  the  opening  of  a  Sun- 
day-school convention  for  which  I  was 
responsible,  he  gave  evidence  of  this,  and 
caused  others  to  feel  it.  That  sermon  was 
entitled,  "  God's  Thoughts  Fit  Bread  for 
Children."  It  is  included  in  his  published 
works,  and  some  of  its  precious  utterances 
are  worthy  of  being  read  and  pondered  by 
preachers  and  teachers  who  have  not  yet 
come  up  to  its  high  standard  and  high 
plane. 

Meeting  me  one  day,  not  long  before  his 
death,  Dr.  Bushnell  said  heartily : 


Horace  Bushncll  101 

"  Trumbull,  you  knew  better  than  I  did 
where  the  Lord  wanted  you.  I  honestly 
thought  the  pulpit  was  a  bigger  place  for 
you,  and  I  tried  to  get  you  into  it.  But 
now  I've  come  to  see  that  the  work  you 
are  doing  is  the  greatest  work  in  the 
world."  And  after  a  moment's  pause  he 
added,  "  Sometimes  I  think  it's  the  only 
work  there  is  in  the  world." 

Because  he  was  so  great  a  man,  Dr. 
Bushnell's  mind  was  wide  open  to  the  last. 
He  was  ever  growing  and  gaining ;  as 
ready  to  learn  as  to  teach,  to  get  as  to 
give. 

My  first  bit  of  independent  exegesis  was 
when  I  had  had  the  stimulus  and  inspira- 
tion of  his  grand  teaching  and  of  his  kind 
interest  in  me  for  a  score  of  years.  I  had 
been  led  to  a  careful  study  of  the  Third 
Commandment,  and  had  finally  written  on 
the  theme.  Walking  with  Dr.  Bushnell,  I 
told  him  of  my  conclusions  on  the  subject, 
and  gave  him  the  substance  of  the  proofs 
confirming  my  views.     I   emphasized  the 


102        My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

truth  that  to  "  take  ...  in  vain  "  the  name 
of  Jehovah  as  our  God  was  not  to  speak  or 
write  it  profanely,  but  was  to  claim  a  right 
to  uplift  or  bear  it  without  doing  this  in 
sincerity  and  reverence.  Dr.  Bushnell  lis- 
tened, as  always,  with  open  ears  and  mind, 
ever  ready  to  rejoice  in  a  fresh  or  enlarged 
view  of  God's  truth.  As  with  enthusiasm 
I  emphasized  the  truth  as  I  had  arrived  at 
it,  he  responded  sympathetically  and  with 
heartiness,  taking  in  the  idea  in  all  its 
magnitude : 

"  I  see,  Trumbull,  I  see.  So  that  com- 
mandment is  not  against  mere  profanity,  as 
we  ordinarily  understand  it,  but  it  is  against 
hypocrisy,  which  is  a  great  deal  worse.  Be- 
ing insincere  or  hypocritical  is  a  vast  deal 
more  than  merely  saying  words  that  we 
ought  not  to." 

As  Dr.  Bushnell  said  these  words,  we 
came  to  the  corner  of  Main  and  Asylum 
Streets,  in  Hartford,  where  we  must  part, 
he  to  go  to  his  room,  and  I  to  mine.  He 
reached  out  his  arm  at  its  full  sweep,  grasp- 


Horace  Bushnell  103 

ing  my  hand,  as  we  separated,  and  said  with 
emphasis,  as  he  was  always  ready  to  where 
any  added  light  on  God's  truth  was  brought 
to  him  : 

"Trumbull,  you've  given  me  a  great 
truth,  and  I  thank  you." 

Those  were  the  last  words  that  I  ever 
heard  him  speak ;  but  the  influence  and 
the  inspiration  of  this  greatest  of  all  my 
teachers  abides  with  me  fresh  and  forceful 
still.  Not  only  was  he  ever  teaching,  but, 
like  all  great  teachers,  his  mind  was  ever 
open  to  receive  fresh  truth  from  even  the 
least  of  his  pupils.  He  not  only  had  won- 
derful power  in  teaching  the  great  and  the 
small,  but  he  had  equally  wonderful  power 
of  learning  from  those  of  every  grade. 
What  a  man  he  was ! 

HIS  WAY  OF  SEEING  AND  SAYING  THINGS 

There  was  peculiar  force  in  Bushnell's 
already  quoted  remark  about  himself  and 
his  way  of  seeing  things,  "  I  just  look  at 
truth  from  another  corner  of  the  room." 


104        My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

Bushnell  could  not  use  commonplaces,  for 
he  neither  thought  nor  spoke  like  common 
men.  There  was  a  refreshing  originality 
in  all  that  he  said,  and  in  his  way  of  saying 
it.  Yet  there  was  no  striving  after  origi- 
nality on  his  part ;  he  simply  was  original, 
and  all  who  were  with  him  realized  this. 

When  he  sat  with  his  brother  clergymen 
of  different  denominations  in  the  Monday 
morning  Ministers'  Meeting  in  Hartford,  as 
some  topic  of  special  interest  was  under 
discussion,  often  a  single  sentence  from 
him  would  clear  the  mental  atmosphere, 
and  at  once  give  all  a  sense  of  the  real 
issue.  On  one  occasion  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  childhood  was  under  considera- 
tion, and  feeling  waxed  warm  over 
theological  dogmas  involved.  Those  who 
felt  that  "  regeneration  "  was  essential  to 
salvation,  and  that  a  child  must  be  of  suffi- 
cient age  to  experience  the  needed  "  change 
of  heart,"  had  expressed  their  views  in 
terms  that  left  no  doubt  as  to  the  demands 
of  true  "  orthodoxy."     When  it  came  Dr. 


Horace  Bushnell  105 

Bushnell's  turn,  he  simply  said,  with  that 
peculiar  twang  of  his,  as  he  threw  back  his 
head: 

"  I  don't  see  what  right  we've  got  to  say- 
that  a  child  can't  be  born  again  before  he's 
born  the  first  time." 

All  then  realized  what  Bushnell  thought 
about  it,  and  what  they  had  thought — or 
not  thought. 

At  another  time,  the  practical  question 
came  up  as  to  welcoming  a  special  evan- 
gelist in  Hartford,  with  the  co-operation 
of  the  city  pastors  generally.  Some  had 
favored  this  matter,  and  others  had  spoken 
slightingly  of  "  revivals  "  and  their  influence 
in  the  community.  Dr.  Bushnell  pithily 
put  the  case  when  he  said  : 

"  However  we  may  differ  about  the  de- 
sirableness of  '  revivals,'  we  can  certainly 
agree  that  we  all  need  reviving." 

That  was  looking  from  another  corner. 

Speaking  about  the  power  of  a  preacher 
as  bringing  God's  message  to  men,  he  said 
that  many  times  a  preacher  stands  in  the 


106       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

way  of  the  message  he  is  set  to  bring,  giv- 
ing his  hearers  too  much  of  himself,  and 
not  letting  God  be  heard. 

"  God  wants  his  messenger  to  be,  as  it 
were,  an  empty  tube,  for  God  to  speak 
through  to  his  hearers." 

Dr.  Bushnell  always  gave  advice  in  a 
novel  way,  and  in  a  way  suited  to  the  per- 
son's peculiar  need.  It  was  "  a  prescrip- 
tion, not  a  lecture  on  medicine."  To  a 
young  clergyman  who  was  inclined  to  give 
himself  wholly  to  personal  work  for  indi- 
viduals, to  the  neglect  of  mental  training, 
he  said : 

"  You  need  to  take  more  interest  in  sub- 
jects, and  not  be  all  the  time  absorbed  in 
persons." 

Yet  just  about  that  time  Dr.  Bushnell  said 
to  another,  who  seemed  to  lack  personal 
interest  in  his  fellows,  and  to  care  for  nothing 
so  much  as  what  he  counted  great  themes : 

"  You  need  to  take  more  interest  in  per- 
sons, and  not  to  be  all  the  time  thinking 
about  subjects." 


Horace  Bushnell  107 

In  giving  a  public  charge  to  a  young 
pastor  at  his  installation,  he  said : 

"  When  you  are  studying,  study ;  when 
you  are  recreating,  recreate.  Do  one  thing 
at  a  time,  and  what  you  are  doing  do  with 
your  might ;  take  hold  sharp,  and  let  go 
sharp." 

As  to  doubts,  his  word  to  that  young 
preacher  was : 

"  Don't  let  your  doubts  trouble  you  too 
much ;  and  don't  feel  that  you've  got  to 
resolve  them  all.  Often  the  best  thing 
you  can  do  with  your  doubts  is  to  hang 
them  up  to  dry.  Then,  when  a  good  time 
comes,  you  can  take  them  down  again  to 
look  at.  In  many  cases  you'll  find  that 
somehow  they've  settled  themselves ;  they 
are  no  longer  doubts." 

Although  Dr.  Bushnell's  views  or  state- 
ments of  the  work  wrought  by  Jesus  Christ 
were  at  variance  with  those  of  many  in  his 
day,  no  one  who  knew  him  could  have 
doubt  about  his  personal  trust  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  as  his  Saviour.     "  It  is  not  the 


108       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

committing  of  one's  thought,"  he  said,  "  in 
assent  to  any  proposition,  but  the  trusting 
of  one's  being  to  a  Being,  there  to  be  rested, 
kept,  guided,  molded,  governed,  and  pos- 
sessed forever."  A  favorite  expression  of 
his  was : 

"  Faith  always  rests  on  a  Person.  Faith 
is  that  act  by  which  one  person,  a  sinner, 
commits  himself  to  another  Person,  a  Sav- 
iour." 

It  was  the  same  in  little  things  as  in 
greater  with  Bushnell.  He  had  his  own 
fresh  way  of  ordinary  comment  on  what 
he  saw  or  heard.  He  stopped  me  once  at 
the  corner  of  Main  Street  and  Central 
Row,  Hartford,  and,  pointing  to  the  new 
building  of  the  Connecticut  Mutual  Life 
Insurance  Company,  he  said : 

"  I  like  that  building  better  than  the 
Charter  Oak  Life  building." 

Just  then  a  prominent  citizen  who  was  a 
little  finical  came  along,  and  the  Doctor 
said : 

"  I  was  telline  Trumbull  that  I  like  that 


Horace  Bushnell  109 

Hartford    Life   building    better    than    the 
Charter  Oak  Life." 

The  sneering  rejoinder  was  : 
"  Gingerbread,     gingerbread,     both     of 
them !  " 

"  Yes,  but  I  say  that  this  is  better  gin- 
gerbread than  that." 

His  judgment  was  according  to  what 
the  thing  was,  and  not  according  to  what 
it  might  have  been.  He  was  keener  to 
see  attractions  than  defects  in  persons  or 
things.  At  one  time  a  person  spoke  sneer- 
ingly  of  a  clergyman  with  whom  the  per- 
sonal element  had  exceptional  weight, — 
who  was  inclined  to  tell  of  his  interviews 
with  others,  and  to  emphasize  the  impor- 
tance and  worth  of  those  of  whom  he 
spoke. 

"I  don't  like  Dr.  Blank,"  it  was  said; 
"  he's  so  egotistical." 

"  Oh  !  "  said  Dr.  Bushnell  kindly,  "  Blank 
isn't  any  more  egotistical  about  himself 
than  he  is  about  everybody  else." 

And  that  was  a  fair  measure  of  the  man, 


no       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

and  a  fine  illustration  of  the  spirit  of  good 
Dr.  Bushnell. 

Dr.  Joel  Hawes  was  the  patriarch  of  the 
Hartford  ministry.  There  was  a  quaint- 
ness  of  appearance  and  deportment  on  his 
part  of  which  all  felt  the  influence.  One 
of  his  little  peculiarities  was  his  manner  of 
walking  with,  or  seemingly  away  from, 
Mrs.  Hawes,  as  they  came  to  or  from 
church  or  any  other  place.  He  walked 
off  with  long  strides,  and  she  followed 
with  short,  quick  steps,  at  a  little  distance 
after  him,  as  if  hopelessly  trying  to  over- 
take him.  When  Dr.  Hawes  died,  Mrs. 
Hawes  was  too  sick  to  attend  his  funeral, 
and  a  few  days  later  she  died.  The  entire 
Hartford  community  mourned  their  loss. 

At  the  Ministers'  Meeting,  Dr.  Bushnell 
voiced  the  feelings  of  all  when  he  said : 

"  Though  we  have  many  instructors  in 
Christ,  yet  have  we  not  many  fathers." 

Then,  paying  a  beautiful  tribute  to  Dr. 
Hawes  as  the  patriarch  of  the  Hartford 
clergy,  he  pictured   his  lifetime  helper  in 


Horace  Bushnell  III 

his  ministerial  work  up  to  the  very  last, 
with  one  of  those  strokes  of  genius,  as  he 

said: 

"  She  even  followed  him  so  closely  in  his 
heavenward  path  that  she  seemed  almost 
to  overtake  him  in  his  flight." 

How  Dr.  Bushnell  was  himself  looked 
up  to  in  love  and  reverence  by  the  younger 
ministers  of  his  city  and  day,  cannot  be 
better  indicated  than  in  the  mention  of  his 
last  sermon,  read  before  the  Hartford  Cen- 
tral Association,  as  made  by  good  Dr. 
Parker  in  a  historical  sketch  of  that  asso- 
ciation. 

"  At  a  meeting  in  the  South  Church,  one 
of  the  last  that  Dr.  Bushnell  attended,  he 
began  to  fulfil  an  appointment  by  saying, 
♦Brethren,  I  am  going  to  read  what  is 
probably  my  last  sermon,'  and  then  an- 
nounced his  subject:  'Our  Relations  to 
Christ  in  the  Future  Life.'  We  listened 
with  eager,  tender  attention.  When  he 
finished  there  was  a  long  silence.      No  one 


112       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

cared  or  dared  to  speak.  At  length  the 
Doctor  said,  '  Come,  Burton,  tell  us  what 
you  think  of  it'  Dr.  Burton  hesitatingly- 
said,  '  Dr.  Bushnell  tells  us  that  this  is  his 
last  sermon.'  He  got  no  farther,  but  bowed 
his  head  and  wept.  And  we  all  wept  to- 
gether. Then  we  knew  how  we  loved 
him,  and  how  he  loved  us,  and  what  an 
irreparable  loss  his  departure  would  be  for 
us.  The  dear  old  Doctor,  calmest  of  all, 
his  deep  eyes  full  of  tears,  his  wan  face 
radiant,  looked  on  as  with  heavenly  grace 
and  benediction." 

A  WORLD-WIDE  SOWER  OF  SEED-THOUGHTS 

Horace  Bushnell  was  unmistakably  one 
of  the  intellectual  forces  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Like  Coleridge  and  Maurice  and 
Carlyle  and  Emerson,  he  has  left  his  im- 
press on  the  thought  of  not  only  his  coun- 
trymen but  his  race.  Like  them  also  his 
power  was  evidenced  in  the  inspiring  sug- 
gestiveness  of  his  utterances,  rather  than  in 
any  formal  system  of  thought  or  recognized 


Horace  Bushnell  113 

school  of  thinkers  constructed  or  led  by 
him.  Men  have  felt  his  influence  who 
know  little  about  his  personality.  That 
influence  has  indeed  been  most  widely  ex- 
tended through  the  labors  of  men  who 
would  freely  acknowledge  their  intellectual 
indebtedness  to  him,  yet  who  are  popularly 
credited  with  being  pioneers  in  lines  of 
thought  where  they  followed  him. 

Years  ago,  I  spent  a  Sunday  in  the 
home  of  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry  in  Richmond, 
Virginia,  the  distinguished  scholar  and 
preacher  in  the  South,  whose  far-reaching 
influence  and  power  were  well  known  and 
felt  in  our  country  and  abroad.  As  I  sat 
with  him  in  his  study,  I  noticed  on  his  table 
a  volume  of  Bushnell's  "  Sermons  for  the 
New  Life."  As  I  spoke  of  this  book  and 
its  author,  my  host  laid  his  hand  on  the 
volume,  and  said  earnestly,  "  I  have  got 
more  sermons  out  of  that  book  than  out 
of  any  other  in  the  world  except  the  Bible." 
Then,  as  indicating  the  true  nature  of  Dr. 
Bushnell's  influence,  he  added,  "  And  yet  I 


1 14       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

don't  believe  that  Dr.  Bushnell  would 
recognize  one  of  those  sermons  as  from 
him.  It's  the  marvelous  suggestiveness 
of  his  thought  which  gives  his  sermons 
their  chief  value." 

The  fact  that  this  eminent  man  was 
counted  at  the  very  opposite  pole  from 
Dr.  Bushnell  in  religious  views,  in  political 
opinions,  in  theories  of  society,  and  in 
methods  of  work,  made  this  admission  all 
the  more  remarkable.  At  the  same  time 
it  was  an  illustration  of  the  patent  fact  that 
one  who  read  Bushnell  at  all  would  have 
his  mind  preternaturally  quickened,  whether 
he  agreed  with  him  or  disagreed.  When 
I  told  Dr.  Bushnell  of  this  incident,  he  re- 
sponded pleasantly,  "  Well,  that's  the  best 
kind  of  a  compliment.  It's  good  to  set 
men  at  writing  sermons  that  you  wouldn't 
think  you  had  had  anything  to  do  with." 

Some  years  later,  when  I  was  with  Pro- 
fessor Drummond  at  Northfield,  at  the  time 
he  gave,  at  the  Students'  Conference,  his 
now   famous   address    on   "  The    Greatest 


Horace  Bushnell  115 

Thing  in  the  World,"  I  happened  to  men- 
tion something  that  Dr.  Bushnell  said  to 
me  on  a  subject  just  then  under  discussion. 
At  once  Drummond  turned  to  me  with  a 
start,  and  said  with  intensity,  "  Did  you 
know  Bushnell  personally,  Trumbull  ?  " — 
as  if  he  could  hardly  credit  it.  When  I 
told  him  that  I  lived  near  him  for  years, 
and  was  very  much  with  him,  Drummond 
drew  his  arm  through  mine,  and  turned 
from  the  crowd  about  us  toward  the  coun- 
try road  beyond,  saying,  "  Come,  let  us 
walk  together,  while  you  tell  me  about 
Bushnell." 

As  we  talked,  he  listened  and  questioned 
by  turns  with  deepest  interest.  "  Bushnell 
did  so  much  for  me,"  he  said.  "  He  was  a 
discovery,  when  I  first  read  him.  He 
started  me  on  lines  of  entirely  new  thought. 
I  shall  always  be  grateful  to  him."  One 
might  readily  perceive,  in  the  light  of  these 
statements,  that  the  very  title  of  Dr.  Bush- 
nell's  greatest  work,  "  Nature  and  the 
Supernatural  as  Constituting  together  the 


n6       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

One  System  of  God,"  might  even  have 
suggested  the  central  thought  of  Drum- 
mond's  best  known  volume,  "  Natural  Law 
in  the  Spiritual  World,"  even  though  the 
two  books  are  no  more  alike,  nor  in  the 
same  line  of  thought,  than  were  the  ser- 
mons of  the  southern  divine  and  the  ser- 
mons of  Bushnell  which  prompted  to  their 
writing. 

During  all  the  later  years  of  my  life  in 
Hartford,  I  found  that  invariably  when 
an  Englishman  with  whom  I  had  corre- 
sponded, or  who  brought  a  letter  to  me 
from  some  acquaintance  abroad,  visited  our 
city,  he  was  more  desirous  of  seeing  or 
learning  about  Horace  Bushnell  than  about 
anything  else  for  which  the  city  was  fa- 
mous. The  Charter  Oak,  the  new  State 
House,  and  the  old  Puritan  burial-ground, 
were  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the 
living  great  thinker.  I  was  prepared,  there- 
fore, to  feel  the  force  of  the  expression  of 
Dr.  Reuen  Thomas,  when  he,  while  still  a 
transatlantic    clergyman,    wrote    that    his 


Horace  Bushnell  117 

chief  desire  in  the  thought  of  visiting 
America  was  that  he  could  see  "  Niagara 
and  Horace  Bushnell."  Dr.  Thomas  after- 
wards said,  in  explanation  of  this,  "  I  came 
to  America  from  a  country  where  it  was 
a  very  rare  thing  indeed  to  meet  with  a 
minister  of  any  standing  among  Presbyte- 
rians, Congregationalists,  and  Baptists,  who 
was  not  thoroughly  familiar  with  Bush- 
nell's  writings."  "  The  tenth  chapter  of 
Bushnell's  '  Nature  and  the  Supernatural,' 
entitled,  '  The  Character  of  Jesus  Forbids 
his  Possible  Classification  among  Men,'  did 
more  to  prevent  our  theological  students 
and  thinking  laymen  in  England  from 
moving  in  the  rationalistic  direction  than 
any  other  volume  or  score  of  volumes." 

A  distinctive  characteristic  of  Bushnell's 
more  notable  sermons  was  that  the  very 
text  and  title  carried,  in  many  an  instance, 
the  main  force  of  the  sermon  as  a  whole,  so 
that  the  body  of  the  sermon  did  hardly 
more  than  to  enforce  and  apply  the  truth 
of  the  announced  theme.     Often  the  text 


1 1 8        My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

and  title  by  themselves  would  suggest  and 
impress  a  lesson  on  a  thoughtful  mind, 
even  though  the  sermon  itself  were  not 
read.  Thus,  for  example  :  "  Take  therefore 
the  talent  from  him  "  (Matt.  25  :  28),  "  The 
Capacity  for  Religion  Extirpated  by  Dis- 
use ; "  "I  girded  thee,  though  thou  hast 
not  known  me "  (Isa.  45  :  5),  "  Every 
Man's  Life  a  Plan  of  God ; "  "  Give  ye 
them  to  eat"  (Luke  9  :  13),  "Duty  not 
Measured  by  our  Own  Ability;  "  "  And  we 
have  known  and  believed  the  love  that 
God  hath  to  us  "  (1  John  4  :  16),  "  Loving 
God  is  but  Letting  God  Love  Us ;  "  "  Give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread  "  (Matt.  6  :  11), 
"  Routine  Observance  Indispensable."  The 
announcement  of  such  a  text  and  topic  vir- 
tually carried  with  it  a  copyright.  No  one 
afterwards  could  use  these  together  with- 
out being  suspected  of  being  a  plagiarist, 
or  at  least  being  supposed  to  use  unfairly 
the  labors  of  another. 

There  was  a  remarkable  illustration  of 
this  in  connection  with  his  famous  sermon 


Horace  Bushnell  119 

on  "Unconscious  Influence."  That,  in- 
deed, was  an  idiosyncratic  sermon.  Its 
very  title  first  gave  popular  currency  to 
the  phrase  "  unconscious  influence,"  now 
so  familiar  in  our  language.  Its  text, 
"Then  went  in  also  that  other  disciple" 
(John  20  :  8),  gained  a  fresh  meaning  in 
the  sacred  record  from  this  application  of 
it.  Its  idea  was :  John  had  reached  the 
tomb  of  Jesus  first,  but  he  stopped  at  the 
entrance  hesitatingly.  Peter,  coming  after, 
pushed  in  with  characteristic  impulsive- 
ness ;  then  John  followed.  Peter  had  no 
purpose  of  leading  John ;  John  had  no 
thought  of  being  led  by  Peter.  It  was  a 
case  of  unconscious  influence.  Thus  con- 
stantly, in  life,  Peters  are  leading  Johns, 
Johns  are  following  Peters,  all  uncon- 
sciously. Our  unconscious  influence  is 
more  potent  than  our  conscious,  and  we 
are  more  directly  responsible  for  it,  for  it 
grows  out  of  our  personal  character. 

This  sermon  was  published  in  Bushnell's 
"  Sermons  for  the  New  Life,"  his  first  vol- 


120       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

ume  of  sermons,  in  1858,  and  was  soon 
widely  known  throughout  the  country. 
Some  time  after,  Stopford  Brooke's  "  Life 
and  Letters  of  Frederic  W.  Robertson " 
appeared  in  England  and  America.  In 
that  was  a  letter  from  Robertson,  saying 
that  he  intended  to  write  a  sermon  on 
"  Unconscious  Influence "  from  the  text 
"Then  went  in  also  that  other  disciple" 
(John  20  :  8).  The  points  of  it  suggested 
by  Robertson  were  quite  in  the  line  of 
Bushnell's.  American  admirers  of  the  lat- 
ter pointed  to  this  as  a  manifest  case  of 
plagiarism. 

Robertson's  friends  sneered  at  this  idea, 
and  at  first  said  that  he  probably  never 
heard  of  Bushnell.  Bushnell's  friends 
pointed  out  a  mention  of  Bushnell  by 
Robertson  in  a  letter  giving  his  estimate 
of  him.  Thereupon  Robertson's  friends 
retorted  that  Robertson's  letter  on  this 
subject  was  dated  a  dozen  years  before 
Bushnell's  volume  of  sermons  was  issued. 
At  this  point,  Dr.  Bushnell,  being  appealed 


Horace  Bushnell  121 

to,  said  that  he  had  preached  that  sermon 
in  England  prior  to  its  first  mention  by 
Robertson,  and  that  it  was  not  only  reported 
in  the  daily  press,  but  that,  by  request  of  its 
English  hearers,  it  was  published  there  in 
pamphlet  form  soon  after  it  was  delivered. 

These  facts  were  given  me  at  the  time 
by  Dr.  Bushnell,  and  I  ventured  to  ask 
him,  "  Do  you  think,  Doctor,  that  Robert- 
son really  intended  to  plagiarize  ?  " 

"  No,  no,"  said  the  Doctor;  "  Robertson 
was  too  much  of  a  man  for  that.  He 
didn't  need  to  do  such  a  thing.  There 
was  no  temptation  to  him  to  appropriate 
another  man's  ideas  in  that  way." 

"  How,  then,  do  you  account  for  all 
this  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  that  Robertson  read  a  report 
of  that  sermon  in  the  newspaper,  one  morn- 
ing soon  after  I  preached  it,  and  he  liked 
the  plan ;  but  then  it  practically  went  out 
of  his  mind.  Later  its  ideas  came  back 
to  him  in  such  a  way  that  he  thought 
he   was   originating   them,   when    he  was 


122        My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

unconsciously    recalling    them    from    his 
memory." 

This  incident  certainly  shows  that  men 
of  strong,  fresh  thought,  who  were  them- 
selves leaders  of  their  fellows,  as  well  as 
less  prominent  men,  were  consciously  or 
unconsciously  influenced  by  the  thoughts 
and  personality  of  Horace  Bushnell. 

WINNING    HIS    CHILD  HEARERS 

Even  though  Dr.  Bushnell  could  not  be 
said  to  use  simple  words  as  a  preacher,  he 
could  interest  children  in  his  preaching. 
It  may  have  been  his  earnestness  and 
sincerity  in  pressing  the  theme  of  his  dis- 
course, his  desire  to  make  himself  under- 
stood, coupled  with  his  intense  personality, 
that  gave  him  a  hold  on  young  hearers. 
However  that  may  be,  he  certainly  did 
attract  children,  in  contrast  with  many 
another  preacher  of  his  day. 

I  never  heard  him  when  I  was  a  child, 
but  I  have  been  told  by  those  who  as  chil- 
dren did  hear  him,  on  occasions  when  he 


Horace  Bushnell  123 

exchanged  with  their  pastor,  that  he  was 
always  welcomed  by  children  as  a  preacher, 
in  contrast  with  their  pastor,  even  though 
he  made  no  attempt  to  address  himself 
directly  to  children.  This  fact  as  a  fact  is 
to  be  considered  in  an  estimate  of  the  man, 
however  it  is  to  be  accounted  for. 

An  interesting  incident  in  this  line  was 
given  me  but  recently  as  a  reminiscence  of 
her  childhood  by  Mrs.  Whitaker,  the  wife 
of  the  honored  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania. 
As  a  child  her  home  was  in  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  where  she  attended  one  of  the 
Congregational  churches  of  the  city.  She 
did  not,  as  a  child,  particularly  enjoy 
church-going,  nor  did  she  think  of  such  a 
thing  as  understanding,  or  being  interested 
in,  her  pastor's  preaching.  She  and  a  little 
brother  usually  occupied  themselves  dur- 
ing sermon  time  in  other  ways  than  listen- 
ing to  their  pastor. 

When  she  was  about  five  years  old  she 
went  to  Hartford,  in  a  stage-coach,  with 
her  mother,  on  a  visit  to   relatives.     On 


124       My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

Sunday  they  attended  the  North  Congre- 
gational Church,  where  Dr.  Bushnell  was 
pastor.  He  at  once  attracted  her  attention 
and  held  it  through  his  sermon.  It  was  a 
new  experience  for  her.  She  had  never 
before  been  interested  in  a  sermon,  but 
now  she  listened  with  interest. 

The  sermon  was  on  obedience.  As  Dr. 
Bushnell  explained  obedience,  and  showed 
its  duty,  she  thought  to  herself,  "Well,  if 
that  is  obedience,  I  ought  to  be  obedient." 
She  was  quiet  through  the  sermon,  and 
thoughtful  about  it  afterwards.  It  gave 
her  something  to  think  of  permanently. 

When  the  family  returned  to  their  home, 
her  aunt  said,  in  her  hearing,  to  her  mother, 
that  her  little  daughter  was  a  remarkably 
well  behaved  child.  The  mother  said  that 
she  was  not  always  so.  At  this  the 
daughter  thought  to  herself  that  if  she 
could  always  hear  such  preaching  as  that 
she  would  always  be  ready  to  listen  to  the 
preacher. 

Her  experience  with  Dr.  Bushnell  helped 


Horace  Bushnell  125 

her  when  she  became  a  teacher  of  children. 
She  had  learned  that  a  child  is  always  glad 
to  be  helped  with  a  bright,  fresh  thought, 
and  so  she  tried  to  help  children  in  that 
way.  She  has  never  found  a  child  who 
was  not  ready  to  be  thus  helped. 

And  this  was  only  another  illustration 
of  Dr.  Bushnell's  power  over  great  and 
small,  because  he  was  what  he  was,  with 
his  own  peculiar  personality. 


WHY  GOD  GAVE  ME  THESE  FOUR 
RELIGIOUS  TEACHERS 

How  was  it  that  I  had  just  these  four 
religious  teachers  at  the  time  when  I  most 
needed  their  teaching,  and  when  they  alone 
could  give  what  would  most  help  me  for  my 
life-work  in  God's  service  ?  It  was  not  a 
matter  of  my  choice.  I  had  no  part  in  the 
selection  of  any  one  of  them ;  yet  no  one 
of  them  could  have  been  spared  as  a  teacher 
co-working  with  the  others,  and  as  essen- 
tial to  the  development  of  the  young  pupil. 
Did  it  just  happen  so  ?  Was  there  no  Pur- 
pose back  of  it,  to  be  recognized  and  to  be 
grateful  for? 

I  have  always  felt,  and  I  still  feel,  that 
this  record  is  an  illustration  of  the  precious 
truth  brought  out  by  Dr.  Bushnell  in  his 
great  sermon,  "  Every  Man's  Life  a  Plan 
of  God."  God  in  his  infinite  love,  and  in 
his  infinite  goodness,  chose  those  four 
teachers  for  me,  each  one  in  his  own  place, 
126 


Why  God  Gave  Me  These  Teachers  127 

and  doing  his  own  work  as  no  other  could 
have  done  it,  and  all  four  working  together. 
Why  this  was,  I  do  not  understand  and 
cannot  explain ;  but  that  it  was,  I  do  not 
doubt  any  more  than  that  God  has  given 
me  life,  and  ministers  to  me  in  life. 

Of  the  goodness  of  God  in  putting  me 
under  those  teachers,  and  granting  me  the 
guidance  and  inspiration  of  their  spirit  and 
words  and  work,  I  have  no  doubt  or  ques- 
tion. Of  my  duty  to  improve  and  to  be 
grateful  for  these  incentives  to  and  help  in 
God's  service,  in  behalf  of  those  whom  God 
loves,  I  have  no  more  doubt  or  question. 
For  all  this  good  made  possible  let  God's 
Name  be  praised ! 

For  whatever  of  good  has  resulted  to 
any  in  consequence  of  this,  I  am  indeed 
grateful.  That  I  have  been  no  more  faith- 
ful and  efficient,  in  view  of  my  rare  oppor- 
tunities and  teachers,  is  my  shortcoming 
and  failure.  What  a  God  is  ours  !  What 
imperfect  instruments  he  makes  use  of  and 
has  loving  patience  with !     And  this  is  one 


128        My  Four  Religious  Teachers 

of  the  most  important  lessons  that  I 
learned  from  these  my  four  early  reli- 
gious  teachers. 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Spe. 


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